Bellway Wales celebrates double success at NHBC awards night
Publication Date: 09-09-2025 09:00
Bellway Wales celebrates double success at NHBC awards night
A multiple-award-winning site manager at a Bellway Wales development in Cardiff has won a coveted Regional Award from the National House Building Council (NHBC).
Paul Oakley, who oversees the build operation at the company’s Longwood Grange site in Lisvane, was named Regional Winner for Wales in the Large Builder category of the NHBC’s annual Pride in the Job competition.
After receiving a Quality Award in the first stage of the competition earlier this year, Paul picked up a prestigious Seal of Excellence and the Regional Award at a prizegiving ceremony in Cardiff on Friday 5 September. It is the third Regional Award of his career.
His Bellway Wales colleague Mark Symonds, who is site manager at Alder Grove, in Newport, also picked up a Seal of Excellence – one of just eight site managers in the Wales region to do so this year. He has now won three Seals of Excellence in his career.
Paul, 52, from Taff’s Well, near Cardiff, said: “Winning the Regional Award for Wales for the third time means everything. The hard work and commitment from my assistant site manager Lewis Pearce, John McDonald and David Roxberry is hugely appreciated. My team, alongside sales, head office colleagues and sub-contractors, have worked extremely hard and continue to raise the standards at Longwood Grange. Their continuous efforts in producing quality work is appreciated and we all have the customers’ expectations as our main focus.
“Thanks also to our Managing Director Andy Backhouse and Construction Manager James Morgan for their continued support, and to my family. I am looking forward to attending the Supreme Awards in London in January.”
Mark, 54, from Abergavenny, said: “It feels really good to have all my team’s hard work at Alder Grove rewarded with a Seal of Excellence. I am very pleased to have secured the hat-trick now. It is recognition from industry experts that what I am doing as a site manager is of a very high standard.
“It is up to me to lead from the front but I am very grateful for all the help and support from my assistant site manager Josh Williams. I feel lucky to have a great set of contractors and sales people working with me on site. We strive to produce the best homes for our customers and it will be reassuring for them to know that they are buying a house at an award-winning site.”
Andy Backhouse, Managing Director at Bellway Wales, said: “It was great to celebrate a double success on the awards night in Cardiff when two of our site managers stepped up to receive awards. I would like to congratulate both Paul and Mark and their excellent teams and to thank them for all their hard work – and to wish Paul all the best in the Supreme Awards next year.
“The Pride in the Job awards involve a rigorous process including spot checks on the day-to-day running of a site and are incredibly tough to win. Site managers need to produce sites of exceptional quality to win a Seal of Excellence, so for two of our site managers to receive this prestigious accolade is a fantastic achievement.”
Paul and Mark brought their teams together for celebratory barbecues to thank them for their support. Burger chefs were invited on site at each development to cook up lunch for the teams to celebrate the wins.
The Pride in the Job competition considers every site registered with the NHBC for the awards and the site managers are judged on a range of areas including leadership, technical expertise and health and safety.
This year, the NHBC selected 450 Quality Award winners from a pool of more than 8,000 site managers whose developments they have inspected across the country, with the successful candidates then going forward to the next stages of the competition – the Seal of Excellence and the Regional Awards.
