Three of the winners in English Partnerships £60,000 home competition have missed out on the chance to develop their designs on site.
Nine firms won the competition to develop the low-cost housing, and part of the prize was the promise of building their design on one or more of 10 sites provided by EP.
Now that the shortlist for last of the sites, in the London borough of Merton, has been announced it has become clear that Redrow, Geoffrey Osborne and the Northern Edge consortium of housing associations have not secured any venues.
The firms that made the cut at Merton were Countryside, Persimmon, George Wimpey and Crest Nicholson.
EP director Trevor Beattie, who ran the competition for the quango, insisted that it had still been worthwhile for firms without a site.
On the shortlist: George Wimpey’s design
He said: "They are still winners and they can use the Design for Manufacture logo, which will be a benchmark of quality." He added that the site winners had been chosen because their schemes best suited the individual plots.
Two companies this week revealed that they were planning to roll out the £60,000 home designs on non-competition sites.
Sandy Morrison, HTA Architects' design director, who helped draw up Barratt Developments' bid, said the housebuilder would be using its designs for a scheme on an EP site at Lawley in Telford. Ashley Lane, director of Westbury Partnerships, said his firm was using its designs to secure an EP former hospital site in Chester.
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