Derbyshire senior site manager named as best in the country for quality

A Senior Site Manager overseeing the construction of Barratt Homes’ Midshires Meadow development in Whaley Bridge has won a top national award for the quality of the homes being built onsite.

Martin Couch (42) has won a Pride in the Job award from the National House Building Council (NHBC), an award known as the ‘Oscars’ of the housebuilding industry.

In total, site managers working for Barratt Homes’ parent company, Barratt Developments, have won 89 Pride in the Job awards this year alone – more than any other housebuilder.

This is the 20th year in a row that Barratt Developments has won the most Pride in the Job awards, having accumulated more than 1,500 individual accolades over the years. This achievement underlines just how important building high quality homes has been to the developer over the last two decades.

Martin Couch, a Senior Site Manager who joined Barratt Homes a decade ago, has claimed his fourth Pride in the Job Quality award, having also won a Seal of Excellence award last year.

Martin said: “It’s always a great feeling to win this award and have our work recognised on a daily basis. We have set a very high standard or work, which is consistently shown year on year.

“Midshires Meadow has been a fantastic if not challenging development to work on due to the location and trials with different build methods, but the finished product is very successful and it could never have been accomplished without the entire team.”

The awards recognise the very best site managers across the country, with over 8,000 being entered into the awards annually. Each is judged on a strict criteria including technical expertise, health and safety, leadership and attention to detail.

The competition is at the heart of raising standards in housebuilding, with the awards showcasing the role site managers play in ensuring much-needed new homes are delivered on time, on safe sites, and to the highest quality standards.

With site managers passing on their skills and industry knowledge to their teams and mentoring assistant site managers, the awards help to drive up quality standards across the industry.

Rhys Nicholson, Managing Director at Barratt Homes Manchester, said: “We’re so proud of Martin for achieving this prestigious Pride in the Job Quality award. It’s amazing news for both the team at Midshires Meadow and for our customers.

“To have won more awards than any other housebuilder for 20 years in a row is an incredible achievement and underlines our commitment to building the very best new homes for our customers.”

Earlier this year Barratt Homes also achieved a Five-Star rating from its customers in the HBF Customer Satisfaction Survey, which recognises both build quality and excellence in customer care. This is the 15th year in a row that the developer’s customers have rated it as a Five-Star housebuilder, with more than 90% of its customers saying they would recommend it to a friend. To find out more about any nearby developments in the county, visit the website at Barratt Homes in Derbyshire.