Private housebuilder of the year

Winner

Berkeley Homes

This has been Berkeley Homes’ year in the Building Homes Quality Awards 2004, as the housebuilder has already taken awards for best customer service, for best planning and land regeneration strategy, and for best urban housing scheme. The achievement is all the more remarkable as it comes in a year when the housebuilder is changing direction, setting a future course for larger urban regeneration projects.

Key achievements

• Developed 1917 units across 64 developments
• Introduced a new customer service initiative in Oxford and Chiltern region
• Appointed a dedicated head of landscape design, and introduced a landscape framework document
• More than 95% of development is on brownfield sites

Judges’ comment: “Berkeley won out because of strengths like the diversity of product and the strong customer satisfaction innovation. They demonstrated that they remain at the cutting edge of housebuilding. They have consistently excellent quality backed by innovation in their policies.”

Finalists

Bellway

Key achievements

• Sold 6278 homes last year
• Entered joint venture with English Partnerships for the development of a key site at Barking Reach
• Selected as preferred developer in south Sefton, Merseyside, under the Klondyke housing market renewal initiative

Judges’ comment: “They deserve recognition for their involvement in the many challenges of the government’s sustainable communities plan.”

Countryside Properties

Key achievements

• Named as the leading housebuilder in sustainable development by a WWF/Insight Investment report
• Entered joint venture with Bank of Scotland for large-scale, mixed-use urban regeneration schemes
• Named by the Sunday Times in its survey as one of the 100 best companies to work for

Judges’ comment: “This company doesn’t stand still, and just keeps on improving.”

Crest Nicholson

Key achievements

• Entered the FTSE4Good index
• Achieved a maximum three-star rating in all categories of the Housing Forum National Customer Satisfaction Survey
• Ingress Park and Port Marine schemes are recognised for their design quality by CABE Building For Life with a gold standard

Judges’ comment: “Crest Nicholson’s commitment to sustainability shines out and is evident in their schemes.”

Miller Homes

Key achievements

• Sold 2871 units
• Opened a southern region, based in Basingstoke
• Website development has generated £163m of sales

Judges’ comment: “The company is doing well, they are forging ahead and they are showing good financial results.”

Redrow Homes

Key achievements

• Record pre-tax profits, passing the £100m mark
• Record forward sales, with value up by 56%
• Awarded the Business in the Community Percent Standard, for giving more than 1% of its pre-tax profits to the community

Judges’ comments: Redrow’s figures are undoubtedly impressive, as are their commitment to innovation and their new training centre in Tamworth. It is really encouraging to see their new product investment and their pursuit of build innovation.