Building news editor George Hay was highly commended in the new business news journalist category at the Periodical Training Council’s Young Journalist of the Year awards, held at the Millennium Mayfair hotel in central London last Friday.

Hay, 25, picked up the award for a series of exclusive stories. These included pieces on the introduction of the “roof tax” for new housing development in Milton Keynes and London mayor Ken Livingstone giving the go-ahead to development plans on the north bank of the Thames. He also broke the news that the Richard Rogers Partnership had been thrown off the Shanghai World Expo, which highlighted problems faced by UK firms working in China.

The judges said Hay “gave the readers what they wanted” and wrote stories that were followed up in the national and trade press.

Laura Chesters, a reporter on Building’s sister magazine Property Week, won the new business journalist of the year award.