Winner: Berkeley Group

In the past year Berkeley Group has continued its focus on brownfield regeneration, reviving underused land to create unique, sustainable and nature-rich places. In fact, 86% of its homes are built on brownfield land, with the firm bringing these isolated sites back into the community and delivering the homes and amenities locals need. This focus has helped the company deliver more than 4,600 mixed-tenure homes in the past 12 months. It also has 60 live sites which it is using for a range of research and development initiatives.

The housebuilder is rolling out a bespoke digital platform that captures the golden thread of key information for every new project, and it is already in place on 39 sites. Meanwhile most of its sites in the past year have incorporated modern methods of construction and – perhaps most significantly given the extensive research, prototyping and testing – the Berkeley Modular factory has produced its first modules.

Berkeley Group has achieved a net promoter score of 77.2 with the Home Builders Federation, greatly exceeding the industry average of 45, while 98% of its customers have said they would recommend the firm to a friend. The company has also had an ongoing focus on quality, with its homes having an average of 1.7 defects reported on completion, based on 2,000 customer surveys, and has been handed Outstanding and Gold awards for customer experience by independent assessors In‑House Research.

The housebuilder has invested £555m in affordable homes and community amenities in the past year and launched its social value tool in autumn 2021. Developed through more than 18 months of research with external experts, the tool helps the company understand the wider social impact of its schemes and has so far completed 13 social value assessments.

The firm has also continued its work through the Berkeley Foundation – which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. Half of the company’s employees contributed to the foundation’s efforts to support local communities, while the foundation donated £3.3m to partner charities. It also established a £900,000 resilience fund to help organisations to future-proof and to recover from the impact of covid-19. 

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