Innovate For Homes was set up in January 2007 by the Home Builders Federation and the Construction Products Association for the benefit of home builders and product suppliers and indeed the new home buying public.
In 2013 Innovate for Homes evolved into a new initiative – The Housebuilder Product Awards, launched by HBF's media arm Housebuilder Media.
The Housebuilder Products Awards reward and recognise excellence and innovation in the products and systems developed for new homes in the UK. Each year entries will be invited in a series of categories with an expert panel of judges assessing the contenders on criteria including time saving; cost saving; meeting a particular standard or need; and practicality/ease of use.
Categories this year included: Best building fabric product; Best internal/interior product; Best exterior product; Best services product; Best kitchens and bathrooms product; Best site product; Best business product; and Best brand new product;
With the housebuilding industry facing a series of ongoing challenges to improve thedesign, quality and delivery of new homes, there is pressure for housebuilders to improve in sustainability, energy efficiency, thermal performance, acoustic performance, smart technology, lifetime homes and disabled access, design excellence and all round structural quality and longevity.
The product supply sector has developed to help housebuilders meet these challenges through innovation and imagination. The Housebuilder Product Awards recognise those products which are doing the most to deliver improvements to the housebuilding process.
The winners of each category go forward to the Product of the Year category in the annual and long established Housebuilder Awards in the Autumn each year.