The Youth Hostelling Association (YHA) is set to complete the upgrade of its most popular hostels in England and Wales before the end of the year.

In 2005, the charity closed 30 of its hostels in order to raise funds for the extensive improvement scheme and to reduce long-term debts.

The strategy has helped the charity to both reduce its borrowing by £12m and raise £10m towards building and improving new sites.

Two new purpose-built facilities close to completion are the £1.8m YHA National Forest in the East Midlands and the £4.3m YHA London Central in Westminster.

A further £4m will is being spent on smaller improvement projects, such as a £1m upgrade of YHA London St Pancras, to complement the relocation of the Eurostar train from Waterloo.

YHA chief executive Roger Clarke said: “The closures were always intended to be a means to an end – to enable us to offer our guests the best possible facilities in our most popular locations.

“It has been sad watching some old, less used, sites close their doors but that has been replaced by optimism as we see new buildings take shape and popular sites improved.

Over the next few months, £480,000 will also be spent on YHA Manchester, £250,000 on YHA Bath and £100,000 on YHA Oxford, while £600,000 will be split between countryside hostels, the YHA Wilderhope Manor in Shropshire and the YHA Pwll Deri on the Pembrokeshire coast, in addition to a £150,000 investment in YHA Broadhaven, also in Wales.