North Lincolnshire-based Keigar Homes Ltd have brought home the award for the best house builder at this year’s Federation of Master Builders’ National Master Builder Awards for their transformation of crumbling outbuildings on contaminated land into five high-quality new homes that complement the area’s rural charm.
TV presenter and all-round building enthusiast Nick Knowles announced the winner of best house builder to the delight of the team from Keigar Homes, during the ceremony held online on September 24th.
The awards recognise building excellence, quality craftsmanship, and exceptional customer service, and are run by the Federation of Master Builders, the largest trade association in the UK construction sector which is this year celebrating its 80th anniversary.
The team at Keigar Homes executed a bespoke development, and were proud to bring unsafe buildings that had long blighted the area and had started to worry the local community, back to life as beautiful family homes. Community engagement was a key success of this project, especially with the local school that looked on to the plot.
Keigar Homes, who also designed the units using their in-house architects, were tasked with creating modern homes, utilising aspects of the old buildings, that would be sympathetic to the rural local area. The site features a unique mix of materials from clay tiles to timber cladding. The homes boast stunning attributes including vaulted ceilings and glazed frontages on the larger barns.
Conscious of the site’s rural location, significant steps were taken to make the development ecologically sensitive. A great deal of care and attention was placed on helping the site run harmoniously in an area rich in wildlife, and the team installed swift boxes, sparrow terraces, bat boxes and a bespoke bat loft.
Picking up the award, Garry Whall of Keigar Homes said: “It feels fantastic for the company. We’ve never been a national winner before. It was very important to get the site to fit into the location, and local people think it’s great.”
National Judge in this category and Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Clive Betts MP, said: “It was the quality of the buildings, the design, in a very constrained and limited site with contaminated land. They have produced an outstanding development; it just felt right.”
Melissa York, Assistant Property Editor at The Times, and another National Judge, commented: “Keigar Homes really demonstrated that in order to be a really great Master Builder, you need to take a holistic approach to house building. This project wasn’t just a collection of really good quality homes, it positively contributed towards the community.”
The final Judge, Leigh Johnson, Head of Design & Master Development at Homes England, added: “They brought into play community, local distinctiveness, a really sensitive approach to a complex and tight site, and the outcome is a super development of new homes.”
Notes to editors
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) is the largest trade association in the UK construction industry representing thousands of firms in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Established in 1941 to protect the interests of small and medium-sized (SME) construction firms, the FMB is independent and non-profit making, lobbying for members’ interests at both the national and local level.
The FMB is a source of knowledge, professional advice and support for its members, providing a range of modern and relevant business building services to help them succeed. The FMB is committed to raising quality in the construction industry and offers a free Find a Builder service to consumers.
