Which is the best new build company in the UK?

There is no single best new build company in the UK, because the answer depends on what you value. Some developers lead on energy performance, with heat pumps, triple glazing and airtightness numbers they will actually publish. Smaller architect-led outfits win on design. The biggest brands compete on price and location. Nobody leads on everything, and the satisfaction ratings reshuffle every year.

So judge the development, not the brand. Quality on a new build site comes down to the site manager and the subcontractors on that phase, which is why the same national name can be excellent in one postcode and shoddy two miles away. Before trusting any of it, go and look. Walk a phase that completed a year or two ago rather than the show home. Check the pointing, how the mastic around the windows has aged, whether the drives have settled. Then knock on a few doors. Residents will tell you in two minutes what no brochure will: how long snagging took, whether customer care answers the phone, what happened the first winter.

Our work is at the other end of London housing, Victorian terraces and 1930s semis around Dulwich, Sydenham and Bromley, but I would apply the same test to a builder of any size, including us. Finished work you can stand in, plus owners who speak freely, beats any award logo. Which builder has the best reputation is a related question with the same shape of answer: it is local, and you have to go and check.