NHBC honours Welsh site managers for high-quality building 2026

Key Points

• Four site managers from Wales were awarded as regional winners in the NHBC Pride in the Job Awards 2026, in an event held in Cardiff on September 4th 2026.
• The four regional winners were Rhun Williams (John Kelly Construction Services), Daniel Williams (Taylor Wimpey South Wales), Steve Jones (J G Hale Construction) and Jason Ivens (Wates Residential).
• All the four regional winners were also presented with the Pride in the Job Seal of Excellence award, which is the top level of the scheme.
• Three more site managers from Wales – Charlie Jones (Barratt David Wilson Redrow South Wales), Dan Purnell (T I Davies A’I Fab Cyf) and Mark Symonds (Bellway Homes Wales) – won the Seal of Excellence award following their previous win of Quality Awards during 2026.
• The Pride in the Job awards scheme is organised by the National House Building Council (NHBC), the biggest supplier of warranties and insurance on UK new homes.
• The award winners were judged on the basis of developments in Caernarfon, Pontyclun and Cardiff that included the categories of small builder, large builder, multi-storey and high-rise.

Wales (Wales Times) September 13, 2026 – Pride in the Job Awards, where four site managers from across Wales were named regional winners at a ceremony held at the uk/local/cardiff/">Cardiff Marriott Hotel on Friday 4 September, according to reporting by Business News Wales. The winners were selected from entries across the UK in a competition organised by the National House Building Council (NHBC), which describes the scheme as the most highly regarded in the housing industry.

Who won the regional Pride in the Job awards in Wales?

As reported by Business News Wales, the four regional winners in Wales for 2026 were: Rhun Williams of John Kelly Construction Services Limited, recognised in the small builder category for his work at Ffrwd Garreg Wen in Caernarfon; Daniel Williams of Taylor Wimpey South Wales, winner in the large builder category for Melin Newydd in Pontyclun; Steve Jones of J G Hale Construction Limited, who won the multi-storey category for Bute Street in Cardiff; and Jason Ivens of Wates Residential, who took the high-rise category for Channel View in Cardiff. Each of the four was also awarded a Pride in the Job Seal of Excellence, placing them among the top-performing site managers nationally.

Which other Welsh site managers received Seals of Excellence?

In addition to the four regional winners, three further site managers from Wales received Seals of Excellence after securing Quality Awards in the first round of the 2026 competition in June, Business News Wales reported. They were Charlie Jones of Barratt David Wilson Redrow South Wales in Cardiff; Dan Purnell of T I Davies A’I Fab Cyf in Cardigan; and Mark Symonds of Bellway Homes Wales in Newport. Earlier coverage in the South Wales Argus noted that Mark Symonds, 55, from Abergavenny, was recognised for his work on Bellway’s Alder Grove development in Newport and described the Seal of Excellence as “a real feather in the cap for any site manager”, adding that he was “incredibly proud to win two back-to-back”. Symonds was one of just seven site managers in Wales to receive the honour in 2026, according to the same report.

How does the NHBC Pride in the Job scheme work?

The Pride in the Job competition is open to site managers working on NHBC Buildmark warranty-registered sites and is designed to recognise outstanding quality and performance, as outlined in coverage by Business News Wales and the NHBC. Quality Award winners progress to the Seal of Excellence stage, with the opportunity to compete for regional awards and ultimately the Pride in the Job Supreme Awards, which are announced at a gala ceremony in London in January of the following year. The NHBC confirmed that the Pride in the Job 2026 Quality Award winners were announced on Friday 19 June 2026, with regional winners selected later in the year.

What projects were recognised in the Welsh awards?

The award-winning projects span a range of scales and tenures across Wales. Rhun Williams was recognised for Ffrwd Garreg Wen in Caernarfon, a small-builder scheme in north-west Wales, while Daniel Williams’ large-builder award related to Melin Newydd in Pontyclun, Rhondda Cynon Taf. Steve Jones’ multi-storey award was for work at Bute Street in Cardiff city centre, and Jason Ivens’ high-rise award related to Channel View, also in Cardiff. The additional Seal of Excellence recipients were recognised for work at Barratt David Wilson Redrow sites in Cardiff, a T I Davies scheme in Cardigan, and Bellway’s Alder Grove development in Newport.

What have industry figures said about the awards?

Commenting on the significance of the scheme, Lee Hawker, Managing Director of Persimmon Homes and Charles Church in East Wales, said in relation to a separate 2026 Pride in the Job winner in Cardiff that such achievements “set the benchmark for excellence and reinforce our reputation within the industry”, according to Business News Wales. Steve Lewis, a Persimmon site manager at the Glan y Coed development in Cardiff who received a Quality Award in 2026, said:

“It’s an honour to receive this award and have the work I put in at Charles Church’s Glan y Coed site in Cardiff recognised by the industry.” He added: “

I love being a site manager, pulling together a team to deliver a development – this is not just a project commissioned by an employer, but an essential objective to tackle the country’s housing crisis, building high-quality homes for local people.”

Background to the NHBC Pride in the Job development

The NHBC Pride in the Job Awards were established to provide an independent, industry-wide benchmark for site management quality on new-build housing schemes registered under the NHBC Buildmark warranty. The competition operates in stages: site managers first compete for Quality Awards, with successful entrants progressing to Seal of Excellence, then regional awards, and finally the national Supreme Awards. The NHBC is the UK’s largest provider of new home warranties and insurance, and its standards are widely used by housebuilders as a measure of construction quality and customer protection. In 2025, Welsh winners included site managers such as Bleddyn Jones of Anwyl Homes at Parc Bodafon in Llandudno, who was one of 450 Quality Award winners from around 8,200 entrants across the UK, and John Coburn of Wates Residential at Maple Fields in Llanrumney, Cardiff, who later secured a regional award. The 2026 cycle has seen continued Welsh representation at both Quality and regional levels, with multiple winners from Barratt David Wilson Redrow, Bellway, Taylor Wimpey, J G Hale, Wates and smaller regional builders.

Prediction: how might these awards affect homebuyers and the Welsh housing market?

For homebuyers in Wales, the concentration of award-winning site managers signals that a number of active developments are being overseen by individuals who have met nationally recognised quality benchmarks, which could translate into fewer defects, better handover standards and stronger aftercare on those sites. For housebuilders operating in Wales, the visibility of Welsh winners in high-profile categories such as multi-storey and high-rise in Cardiff may encourage greater investment in site management training and quality systems to compete for future Pride in the Job recognition. Over time, if award-winning practices are replicated across more schemes, this could support a gradual uplift in perceived build quality in Wales, potentially influencing buyer confidence and the reputation of Welsh new-build projects relative to other UK regions.