Plans to turn a former hospital building into housing have been submitted.

Kier Living Eastern wants to convert the former Rushden Hospital building, known as Rushden House, just off The Drive in the town, into 14 dwellings.

Outline planning permission had been given for 10 dwellings, but the increase in numbers means a new application has to be submitted to East Northamptonshire Council.

The site is part of the wider former Rushden Hospital complex, which already has outline planning permission for up to 125 dwellings.

While Rushden House is not listed, the plans say that it is a building with “local significance”.

It was built in 1871, enlarged in 1907 and converted to a tuberculosis sanatorium in the 1920s.

In 1960 the house, outbuildings and grounds became a chest hospital, and the site was later used for the care of elderly and mentally ill patients before its closure in 2011.

The building has been vacant since then, and the site has suffered from vandalism on several occasions.

If approved, 11 flats and three town houses, with parking, will be built.

Developers say the external appearance of the building will remain largely unaltered.

The plans state: “The proposed development will make use of a redundant building in the centre of a residential area and help the council deliver its housing targets on previously developed land.

“The reuse of the building will prevent misuse and ensure the continued maintenance of the site, thereby improving the residential amenity of the neighbouring residents, while retaining this locally important unscheduled heritage asset.”