A LEADING player in Herefordshire and Worcestershire's construction industry has been honoured at the first West Midlands building awards rewarding innovation and best practice.

Stourport-on-Severn-based Thomas Vale Construction plc won the Training Excellence Award, at the inaugural Building Excellence Awards organised by the West Midlands Construction Forum.

Thomas Vale - which has been an Investor in People since 1997 - won the award for its commitment to workforce development.

The firm has also established its own training company to train employees and promote training among supply chain partners.

George Marsh, chairman of Chase Norton Construction and chairman of the West Midlands Construction Forum, said the aim of the awards was to celebrate the contribution the construction industries of Worcestershire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands made to the lives of everyone who lived and worked in these regions.

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"This was an important event as it provided the opportunity to raise the profile of the construction industry, the UK's largest single industry, which employs more than 1.5m people and carries out over £60bn worth of work each year," he said.

"Our inaugural Building Excellence Awards dinner was a wholehearted success, and I am delighted that so many leading members of the industry supported the event."

The awards were presented on Thursday, February 26, at the Belfry Hotel, in Wishaw, near Tamworth, West Midlands.

The winner of the Feature Building Award was the Bullring, Birmingham, Europe's largest retail-led regeneration project, which was a partnership between Hammerson plc, Henderson Global Investors Ltd and Land Securities Group plc.

The Supply Chain Award went to the Wates Group, one of the UK's largest privately-owned construction and development companies, for its commitment to best practice values and significant developments in supply chain management.

The Regeneration Award went to Castle Vale Housing Action Trust, which was set up in 1993 and has focused on the physical regeneration of Castle Vale as well as empowering its 9,000 residents.

The Innovation Award was won by Akristos Limited, in Stoke-on-Trent, which uses industrial waste as an alternative raw material for the brick, aggregate and cement industries, conserving natural mineral resources.

The Business of the Year Award went to Alumet Systems (UK) Ltd, based in Southam and Halesowen, in the West Midlands, which has expanded and developed over the past 10 years. Recent innovations include the revolutionary Avon Dry Wall Beam, which replaces conventional masonry.