Continuing to drive up levels of customer satisfaction is the main focus for Bellway North East’s new Head of Construction.
Ben Singlewood has been appointed to the role with the housebuilder’s North East division on a permanent basis, having held the position in an interim capacity since last May.
Based in the North East division’s head office in Gateshead, Ben will be responsible for sites across Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham.
He believes that delivering key infrastructure at an earlier stage in the construction process has played an important part in the division improving its customer satisfaction scores – and he is determined to ensure that the buyer experience remains front and centre in his planning and decision making.
Ben, 51, from Bishop Auckland, said: “We have a ‘Customer First’ policy that is part of the company ethos. This is massive for the success of the business and for customer feedback.
“Ensuring that all roads and other infrastructure are finished to an adoptable standard as a development progresses ensures that customers move into a street that feels complete. Historically this work might have been done towards the end of the project, but we try to do it while we are still on site. That means we control it better and it makes it easier for people who have moved in to get around. We are judged on our scores and surveys, and we find our scores are getting better because we are doing this work as we go.”
Decisions around which homes are completed and handed over to customers and when this happens also have a big impact on the customer experience.
“Occupation strategies are important because we want to move people into the correct environment, especially as on a large development work may be completed over several phases, over several years, and we are still the neighbours to our customers.”
Ben has been with Bellway for 21 years, having joined the company as an assistant site manager in Darlington in 2004.
“Bellway is a great company to work for with good employee engagement. It’s a very inclusive and forward-thinking business,” he said.
Ben became a site manager in 2011, working in Darlington, Durham and Washington. Between 2014 and 2016 he was Senior Site Manager at Stannington Park – a regeneration project on the former St Mary’s Hospital site in Stannington in Northumberland for which Ben won a prestigious Pride in the Job Quality Award from the National House Building Council (NHBC).
In 2016 he became Construction Manager and in 2018 Senior Construction Manager.
Major projects on the horizon include Bellway’s DH1 development to the north west of Durham, where the company is building 368 homes all fitted with sustainable air source heat pumps.
The role of Head of Construction entails long-term strategic involvement not just in construction on-site but in every part of the process from land acquisition and planning to technical and sales. Ben enjoys the fast pace and problem-solving demands of the role in an industry that is constantly on the move.
He said: “The one thing that is constant is change, and that’s a big appeal of the role for me. It’s a very dynamic role and I like the variety.”
In some ways his motivation is the same as it was when he was a site manager.
He said: “We are creating communities and I get a lot of satisfaction in turning over a good house and a good product.”
To find out more about Bellway North East, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-