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Bill Hughes has beaten thousands of site managers across the UK to take the National House Building Council's (NHBC) supreme 'Pride in the Job' title.

The award means he is officially the best site manager in the whole of the UK, representing the country's largest housebuilders.

Bill has beaten 17,000 NHBC other registered site managers and survived four rounds of intense judging over 12 months to get to this stage. His work has been checked by NHBC Building Insepectors, Regional Directors and independent experts all looking to find the site managers who build homes to the very highest standards.

Last year, Bill was one of 400 site managers in the UK to win a Quality Award in the first stage of this competition. He went on to become one of 100 site managers to win a Seal of Excellence in the second round. To reach the finals, Bill had to score higher than any other site manager in his region (the North West) which he did taking the regional title.

He was then subjected to an unannounced visit from an NHBC Regional Director and two independent external judges for a final check.

At a glittering award ceremony in London, Bill learnt that he had surpassed all of the competition to win the overall title in his category.

Bill manages one of Homes' largest developments – Regent's Square in the North West. He is overseeing the construction of all 94 homes and he currently has a team of between 70 to 90 people on site. The team ranges from Homes' employees, to contractors and self-employed labourers. Each has a different way of working and it's Bill's job to ensure each work style and individual personality come together to create an end result that meets Homes' criteria.

It's Bill's love of the job that has got him so far. He even says that he would do nothing else for a living – except perhaps play for Everton.

He believes that his award is a testament to the skills of the people that work on site. "I don't lay the bricks or cut the wood. I oversee these tasks and I couldn't have come this far in a national competition if the people I work with were anything less than excellent."

Getting this far in the NHBC Pride in the Job Awards is a first for Homes as well as Bill. Two other site managers - (Tim Taylor ('Ash Court', Homes West Midlands) and Bill Clarke ('Riverside Park', North East) - for the company were winners in the first round. 2003 is the first time that Homes has ever appeared in the finals – yet alone won it!

For Bill it is a dream come true: "Winning the regional finals was my ambition for years. I didn't expect to go on and win the national final too. It's incredibly hard to win a Quality Award (the award given out in the first round of the campaign) as only 400 of these are given out every year so to go on past that stage was really exciting. It's just got better and better ever since."

Bill reached this stage of the competition with a team he had only known for around 18 months, which speaks volumes about his ability to lead: "I have a huge respect for tradesmen. I enjoy getting the best out of people and working as a team to get things done properly."

He added, "I strongly believe that if it wasn't for the help and enthusiasm of the company I could not have got this far."

Homes' Managing Director, Tim Hough, concluded; "Bill has a huge amount of enthusiasm for his work, an incredible level of commitment and an eye for detail – as this award shows.

"It is a fantastic result for Bill. To be put into a competition against every single site manager in the UK and come out on top is incredible. He is a true asset to the company."

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