Customer and Quality

Beyond these metrics, it’s our unwavering commitment to quality, communication, and doing what we say we will that truly sets us apart.

Feedback plays a crucial role in shaping and enhancing the customer experience, reflected by our 4.9-star Trustpilot rating, which ranks us as the number one housebuilder on the platform.

As a five-star homebuilder in the HBF’s annual Customer Satisfaction Survey for seven consecutive years, our teams play a pivotal role in helping individuals and families find their dream homes. Whether that means guiding first-time buyers onto the property ladder or assisting families in finding the perfect space to grow, we are committed to exceeding expectations and making homeownership a fulfilling journey for all.

We signed up to the Own New Rate Reducer, a unique scheme that enables buyers to access low-rate mortgages when they buy a new home through us. The scheme offers reduced monthly repayments during the initial mortgage period, helping first-time buyers fulfil their dream of buying a new home.

Our customer journey lays out the steps involved in buying a new home, from initial contact to handover, including key milestones and timelines. This transparency builds trust by giving customers a clear picture of what to expect and when.

To support our customer journey, we launched a fully automated software portal that helps us manage reservations and provides customers with access to their legal documents, construction updates, building plans, and more.

One key step in our customer journey is the RTMI (ready to move in), an internal quality assurance audit that we provide over and above the typical building control checks. Our RTMI is a detailed report on the readiness of a home and details any snags. We are proud to occupy first place in the HBF’s ranking of the lowest average number of snags per home, which is a testament to the meticulous audit we carry out before we hand over keys.

Our house types are constantly under review, and we take on board feedback from our customers, which helps us continuously improve our product. We review internal specifications regularly, in line with current trends and feedback from buyers. In 2022, we launched updated specifications to use across our residential portfolio, and we are able to create bespoke specifications where the market or the development’s goals demand it, such as accommodating more sustainable materials.

Estate management is a key part of our customer experience and placekeeping strategy, helping to maintain attractive developments where people feel proud to live.

At a time when the cost of living is high and people’s monthly budgets are stretched, we work hard to select estate management partners that offer real value to our customers. Empowering residents, we invite all buyers to become directors of their development’s residents’ management association, who hold the power to vote for a change of supplier if the current managing agent is not meeting satisfactory service levels.

We create exceptional public spaces and understand the vital role these areas play in community health, wellbeing, and connectedness. This starts at the planning stage, where we actively listen to resident feedback during consultations, allowing the community to shape the development, and creating spaces that foster a sense of belonging and connection.

We ensure developments include open spaces like parks, recreation areas, community allotments, and growing spaces, encouraging interaction and drawing people outdoors.

We collaborate with leading landscape consultants, accessibility consultants, and local conservation groups to ensure our designs are not only beautiful but also sustainable, inclusive, and sensitive to the local environment. This approach translates to well-lit, well-planted, and usable spaces with high-quality play equipment.

Computational Biologists Ellie and Ben, both aged 26, left the spiralling costs of renting behind and successfully stepped onto the property ladder together.

Having rented throughout their time as Cambridge University graduates, they wanted to remain living close to the city centre, and now own a brand new two-bedroom apartment at Timber Works, delivered by the Cambridge Investment Partnership.

Meeting their work-from-home needs and only a 20-minute walk away from an exciting choice of amenities, their new home ticks all the boxes and more.

Ellie and Ben sought a home that would perfectly balance work and leisure and provide great home-office space while being close to the vibrant centre of Cambridge.

Ben adds:

Our approach to quality is both proactive and thorough, ensuring every home we build adheres to the highest standard and complies with all relevant safety and regulatory requirements. Our dedication to this is reflected in our improved score within the HBF’s New Home Customer Satisfaction Survey, achieving a 96% satisfaction rate and we have now achieved five-star homebuilder status with the HBF for seven consecutive years. Within the same report, we also achieved the second-highest rating among the top 13 UK housebuilders for assessing the build quality of new homes and are number one for delivering the highest number of completed homes with zero recorded defects.

Despite the challenges posed by the last-minute release of detailed government information on the new Building Safety Act, our proactive approach underscores our commitment to maintaining high standards in all aspects of our operations. Our active engagement and support of government initiatives, alongside the newly established Building Safety Regulator, further demonstrates our commitment to ensure the highest levels of safety and compliance
at our sites.

Our enthusiasm for promoting a culture of quality has been demonstrated through the introduction of our new internal Quality Matters newsletter in 2023, which delivers instruction on best practices, areas of focus, and information on topical safety issues.

We are conducting trials on a new digital quality system aimed at enhancing our quality assurance processes. The system, once launched, will increase our flexibility and offer our teams a more user-friendly experience.

We are progressing our projects to the ISO 19650 framework, helping deliver structured information to our clients, including Construction, Operation, Building Information Exchange (COBie), and Industry Foundation Class (IFC). Our focus is to encompass better information management across the entire business, ensuring data accuracy, consistency, and accessibility for all stakeholders.

A key aspect of our strategy involves improving efficiency, and by streamlining data collection and reporting processes, we can positively impact project outcomes, foster a cohesive approach across all projects and clients, and drive continuous improvement.

We’re leveraging the information management principles outlined in the Building Safety Act. By incorporating them into our operations, we ensure robust compliant data management protocols.

COBie has played a pivotal role in our recent successes, facilitating the successful handover of Amber House in partnership with SO Resi, and Westhorpe Gardens in partnership with MTVH, both BIM-compliant projects.

All of our projects now follow a protocol for standardised information, enabling more efficient filing and easier access to data. This aligns with the golden thread approach, ensuring a seamless flow of information throughout a project’s lifecycle.

We are proud that the exceptional achievements of our Lampton Parkside team, led by Project Manager George Martin were recognised in the 2023 Pride in the Job Supreme Awards.

In June 2023, his team was awarded the prestigious Pride in the Job Quality Award. Building upon this success, the team attended the Pride in the Job Awards ceremony in October 2023, where they secured a Seal of Excellence Award as well as the Regional Award in the multi-storey builder category for the London region.

In January 2024, the Lampton Parkside team continued its success at the Pride in the Job Supreme Awards at the London Hilton on Park Lane, claiming second place in the multi-storey builder category across all UK regions. The team’s outstanding performance earned them the esteemed ‘Supreme Runner-up Award.’