Last year was a very important year for one of Yorkshire's leading housebuilding companies. Firstly the company, Peter Ward Homes Ltd, won their fifth British Housebuilder of the Year Award and their second Highly Commended Award. The company's Managing Director, Peter Ward, had this to say "Our success in these awards is very important to us. In the seven years we have entered them we have only failed to win an award twice. Each failure year made it even more important for us to bounce back and win an award the following year. The reason we value the awards so highly is because they are not decided upon by a committee, or industry representative body. The people who vote are actual customers - the people who buy our houses. If they are not pleased with our quality, or satisfied with our service, we do not win the awards."

It is this aspect of the Housebuilder of the Year Awards that makes builders, big and small, enter year after year. Peter continued "This award has been around since the early 1990s and has benefited from the support of the Express Newspapers throughout that period. The public now recognise the awards and the building industry themselves realise their importance."

It is no coincidence that Peter Ward Homes have experienced their best record of growth during the period they have been winning these awards. "In 1992, when we won our first award, we built 46 houses. This year we will build over 120 houses," said Peter, "By winning awards we not only demonstrate to the public how good we are as builders of quality homes but, just as importantly, it is a totally external quality control check. If we were not doing our job properly we would not keep winning awards."

So what about 1999, Peter Ward takes up the story so far "We were informed in December last year that we had won an award for 1999, our sixth success and third on the trot. We do not know as yet which award it is. We have not won the top award 'The Blue Riband', but we keep our fingers crossed."

Whatever they come away with from this year's award ceremony held at the Hilton Hotel in London this week, it is obvious this is one company that sees positive rewards in the awards.