The judges are into the final stretch choosing the first ever winners in the 10 performance categories
The spotlight is on the business performance of UK housebuilding with the shortlisting of finalists of the Building Homes Quality Awards. The winners of the awards, co-sponsored by the Housing Forum, will be announced at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on 15 October.

Nearly 50 entries have been shortlisted from more than 25 companies across 10 categories. Shortlisted businesses are:

  • Best customer satisfaction improve- ment: Alfred McAlpine Homes, Crest Nicholson, Miller Homes, Westbury Homes
  • Best change strategy: Bowey Homes, Higgins Group, Miller Homes, Sunley, Westbury Homes, Wilson Connolly
  • Best quality improvement strategy: D Campbell & Co, London and Quadrant Housing Trust, Maritime HA, Miller Homes, Wates Homes
  • Best building efficiency initiative: Black Country HA & CSG, Greenwich Millennium Village, Prime Focus HA, Westbury Homes
  • Best approach to partnering (supply chain): Alfred McAlpine Homes, Gleeson Homes, Laing Homes, the Amphion Consortium, Wilson Connolly
  • Best approach to partnering (subcontractors): Bowey Homes, D Campbell & Co, Lovell Partnerships, Western Challenge HA
  • Best options and choices strategy: Bryant Homes, Countryside in Partnership, Laing Homes, Southern Housing Group, Westbury Homes, Wilson Connolly
  • Best training and people development strategy: Countryside Properties, Laing Homes, Lovell Partnerships, Riverside HA, Stamford Homes, Westbury Homes
  • Best health and safety approach: Bellwinch Homes, D Campbell & Co, Countryside, Laing, Lovell Partnerships
  • Best company-wide sustainability strategy: Black Country HA & CSG, Countryside Properties, Gleeson Homes, Laing Homes, Wilson Connolly

Two companies will be singled out to receive the supreme awards for best private housebuilder and best housing provider in the affordable sector.

The judges are: Professor David Gann, chair of the Housing Forum demonstration project panel; Malcolm Pitcher, marketing expert and Building Homes columnist; Andrew Forrest, learning and development director at the Industrial Society; Steve Morgan, former chairman of Redrow; David Birkbeck, Architects in Housing chief executive; Tom Bloxham, chairman, Urban Splash; John Doggart, director of ECD Energy & Environment; Judith Harrison, project director of the Housing Forum; Jonathan Seal, MD, Hamptons Residential Development & Investment; Florian Sommer, researcher at the New Economics Foundation; Kevin Myers, Health & Safety Executive's chief inspector of construction; Mike Cohen, former chief executive of The Guinness Trust; and Sarah Peace, co-author of Reading University's Trusting the team report on partnering.

Sponsors are Zurich Building Guarantees, Thermalite, Blue Circle Industries, Eternit Building Materials, Euroform Products, BBP, Hyperwise and BuildOnline.