WORK on the region’s first privately-run specialist residential unit for people with severe dementia is set to begin in November – despite the cost of the project rocketing by £1.5m.

When the planning go-ahead for the 18-bedroom new-build development next to the Queen’s House care home in Kelso was given in March, the estimated cost of construction was put at £3m.

But this has now risen to £4.5m, leaving the Queen’s House Trustees, who are behind the project, with a funding shortfall of £500,000.

“It’s true the cost at the planning stage of was £3m, but since the tenders for construction have come in, the building costs have risen to £3.5m,” explained Ray Jones, chairman of the Queen’s House trustees.

“To this, we have to add around £1m for the legal, surveying, architecture and ground costs which leaves the project £500,000 short of its target. Buildings of this sort are never cheap.

“However, this balance will be underwritten by a private donor which means we are confident we will achieve the final amount before completion of the unit in November, 2018.”

Mr Jones said six different construction companies had submitted tenders for the work which has already obtained building warrants.

The new unit will be known as Murray House at the request of a major donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

It will be built on ground adjacent to Queen’s House in Kelso’s Angraflats Road and consist of 18 large bedrooms, two common rooms, a reception, laundry, kitchen, offices, quiet room and beauty room.

Queen’s House was built as a 26-bed care home in 2000 and later extended to 32 beds, offering residential, nursing and dementia care to residents of both sexes.

Mr Jones added: “The home has too many people on the waiting list and there is an urgent need to build a specialist unit for severe dementia residents, especially as the number of Borderers aged over 75 is set to double over the next 20 years.”