SITE managers responsible for building homes in East Lancashire have received prestigious quality awards for their work.

The winners beat 17,000 entrants to be included among the 400 who received the prestigious National House Building Council awards.

Ian Wallis from Brockhall Village Developments/Boway won an NHBC quality award for site management of Brockhall Village, Langho.

David Blacklock from Wm Bowden Quality Properties Ltd in Barrowford won an award for the site at Wheatley Springs, Barrowford.

And Alan Sunter from Fairclough Homes Ltd was named in the honours list for his involvement in the housing estate at Aspden Fold, Oswaldtwistle. They will now go on to the finals where 100 out of the 400 people will be picked for the Seal of Excellence Awards and three will be judged Supreme Winners.

A spokesperson for NHBC said: "These Lancashire companies have done really well to get so far. They were picked out of 17,000 sites visited by the judges."

NHBC Chairman Sir Norman Fowler said: "The house building industry continues to recover in the North and the standard of new homes has never been better.

"The object of these awards is to encourage site managers to strive for excellence and to ensure new home buyers benefit from the quality of the product."

Regional director Crawford McEwan said: "The standards of the North's site managers are very high. In the first quarter of this year there has been 8,830 new home starts in the North region, so it becomes increasingly important to ensure that quality is maintained and, wherever possible, improved."

The final 100 winners and three overall winners will be announced in September.

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