LABC Building Excellence Awards 2025
Winner: Best Small Social Housing Development, West of England
Northgate Mansions, Gloucestershire
- Project Team: Aqua Construction Ltd, Quattro Design Architects Ltd, Gloucester City Homes, O’Brien & Price (Stroud) Ltd, Cotswold Archaeology, Gloucester City Council
- Local Authority: Gloucestershire Building Control Partnership
Aqua Construction is proud to announce it has the won a regional LABC award in the Best Small Social Housing category, West of England, in the 2025 LABC Building Excellence Awards. All regional winners across the many categories will now compete in the London Grand Final in January 2026.
For projects completed in 2024, the awards explore the best attributes of the building work as well as the relationship that existed between the project teams, individuals and local authority building control. The entry from Aqua explained how they achieved compliance, the collaboration between the site team and building control.
Aqua Construction has established a good working relationship with Gloucestershire Building Control Partnership over several years across projects. The strength and depth of this relationship with Mark Stovell, principal building control surveyor, and his team contributed to the success on this challenging project.
Mark Stovell said: “As ever, it’s been a great pleasure working with Derek and the team at Aqua Construction. They are very professional and take a collaborative approach to every project. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Aqua on many projects over the last 15 years, and they always produce and build a high-quality product. Any unforeseen problems or issues are communicated and dealt with promptly and effectively. Aqua Construction would be a worthy winner of any recognition for their continued excellence.”
Aqua Construction’s LABC entry centred on the iconic Northgate Mansions in Gloucester, an impressive five-storey steel-framed building that comprise 25 apartments for social rent including retail space to the ground floor. With its distinctive metal standing seam cladding Northgate formed part of the £104 million landmark King’s Quarter development and the Gloucester city regeneration programme which also features the Forum building.
Jason Wasley, managing director at Aqua Construction, said: “It was fantastic to work on such a key building central to the regeneration of the city. Our close relationship with the Gloucester Building Control Partnership (GBCP), Gloucester City Homes (GCH), and other consultants and contractors were key to project progression and success.”
Michael Hill, executive director of customer experience at GCH, said: “It’s a proud moment for everyone involved in delivering Northgate Mansions and a real honour to see the project recognised by LABC. Truly affordable housing like this transforms lives – improving health and education outcomes and helping people build stable futures. These homes show how social housing can combine sustainability, design quality and community benefit right at the heart of the city whilst enhancing the wider King’s Quarter development.”
The development was completed on schedule and handed over to the client in March 2024 and markedAqua Construction’s 22nd project in partnership with Gloucester City Homes
Northgate Street is one of the four original Roman streets in Gloucester and remains the truest of all four gate streets to its ancient form, although the streetscape has changed down the centuries.
During the 22 months build programme, Aqua worked with 45 contractors employing over 380 workers, equating to a staggering 58,000 person-hours. During the intensive seven-month brick and block laying phase 78,000 bricks and 30,000 concrete blocks were used. Aqua is proud that over 90% were either local labour or local suppliers to the project from across Gloucestershire, transforming the original 650sq.m site into a gross floor area of 1930 sq.metres.
