For over four decades, Pride in the Job has showcased best practice and recognised excellence within the home-building industry. In June, we were delighted to announce this year’s Quality Award winners
A prestigious benchmark for exceptional site managers, Pride in the Job has been central to NHBC’s purpose to raise standards in home-building from the very beginning. Established in 1981, Pride in the Job remains the most highly regarded competition in the sector.
Who can take part in Pride in the Job?
Pride in the Job is truly accessible to all as every site manager with a site registered for
an NHBC Buildmark warranty is automatically entered. There are five categories including:
small builder, medium builder, multi-storey, high-rise and large builder.
The competition covers England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, and is open to businesses of all sizes with no entry forms or fees.
How does Pride in the Job work?
Judging for our 2026 competition has been underway since July last year with the Supreme Awards, the final stage of this 18-month process, set to take place in January 2027.
Assessment criteria for Pride in the Job cover six key areas:
- Consistency.
- Attention to detail.
- Leadership.
- Interpretation of drawings and specifications.
- Technical expertise.
- Health and safety.
The process of identifying Quality Award-winning site managers is extremely thorough, involving thousands of site inspections, careful scoring and meticulous verification. Quality Award winners are announced in June with Regional Events commencing every September and running until the end of November the same year. The Regional Award winners from every region then compete to win the national Supreme Awards that take place the following January.
For the initial nominations sites are judged by the local NHBC building inspector and their inspection manager. For the Quality Award, this involves the local NHBC regional director in addition to an inspection manager.
At the Seal of Excellence and Regional Awards level, the local regional director, another regional director from NHBC and an external judge will inspect the sites. For the Supreme Awards, two regional directors and an external judge will determine the winners.
Cassandra Codling, senior regional director at NHBC, said: “Winning site managers
demonstrate incredible dedication, passion, commitment and leadership to produce
homes of exceptional quality.
“The judges look for that spark of magic that turns a good site manager into a true great.
The competition is at the heart of NHBC’s core purpose to raise standards in housebuilding. It inspires site managers to make their mark on the industry, earning the respect of their peers and leaving a legacy of homes built to the highest quality standards.”
Inspiring quality and excellence for years to come
Not only has Pride in the Job been helping to raise standards in the house-building industry for more than four decades but these awards also have an impact on the sector that reaches far into the future.
In addition to the element of friendly competition that drives site managers
to focus on quality, the competition encourages new perspectives on how the house-building industry operates, leading to innovations, development in practices and incremental enhancements which, over time, are shared and set the new improved standard.
These awards also have a long-lasting impact on people working across the
home-building industry.
Winning site managers often have an assistant site manager working with them who benefits from their mentorship. Those assistants then progress through their own careers, eventually becoming site managers themselves and sharing what they have learned with the next generation. Often, they too will try to expand on what they have seen, and so the entire industry benefits from continuous improvement through shared knowledge and skills.
Build your legacy
Whether you are targeting your first ever Quality Award, pushing for a Seal of Excellence or achieving a coveted Supreme Award, Pride in the Job is the competition that all site managers want to win and helps build your own home-building legacy.
Paul Turner, NHBC’s Chief Executive Officer, commended this year’s Quality Award winners: “I would like to congratulate all the Quality Award winners. It has been wonderful to see the passion those working in this industry have for creating superb homes and communities for their customers.
“Pride in the Job is not only a prestigious accolade that recognises the energy, determination and dedication of outstanding site managers and their teams across the
UK; it also helps drive ongoing improvements in build quality.
“Over the decades, this competition has helped maintain the focus on delivering much-needed high-quality new homes, and this is more important than ever against the wider backdrop of the government’s 1.5m new homes target.”
Find out more about Pride in the Job and the Quality Award winners for 2026 here.
**Please be aware that this is a commercial profile
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