An experienced sales secretary from Chippenham is celebrating 25 years with one of the UK’s leading house-builders.

Emma McKenzie has been a member of the Malmesbury-based Persimmon Homes Wessex team for a quarter of a century.

Swindon-based construction firm Beard has reported a strong financial performance in 2019, continuing the sustainable growth the firm has delivered in recent years.

Pre-tax profits rose to £5 million, an increase of eight percent on 2018, while turnover increased by six percent to £159 million.

A massive distribution centre just off the M4 at Chippenham is taking shape – although construction work has now been paused due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Steelworks for the first speculative unit on the St Modwen Park at Junction 17 have now been erected.

The principal contractor has been appointed to construct Melksham Community Campus, with work set to get underway this year.

Wiltshire Council has appointed Pellikaan Construction Ltd – a specialist in the development of sports facilities – for the project.

Staff at Swindon-based construction firm Beard have presented cheques worth a total of £5,000 to Prospect Hospice and children’s cancer and leukaemia charity CALM, following a year of fundraising.

The charities were chosen by a vote involving every member of staff at the firm’s Swindon office. Prospect Hospice provides end-of-life care services for a community of more than 300,000 in Swindon, Marlborough and north-east Wiltshire. CALM helps families that have a child receiving treatment at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, most of whom are also based in the Swindon and Marlborough area.

Construction firm Beard has appointed Melissa Barber to the new role of head of marketing and communications.

Melissa will lead the firm’s marketing operations, with responsibility for driving the development of the Beard brand across its four locations in Swindon, Oxford, Guildford and Bristol. She will also support the firm’s directors and senior management with wider communications strategy.

Lloyds Bank has agreed a £30m loan facility for Selwood Housing, supporting the delivery of local, affordable homes over the next five years.

Selwood Housing Group, a housing association with head offices in Trowbridge and Melksham, employs nearly 300 staff and provides over 6,500 local affordable homes.

Parliamentarian Richard Bacon, the MP who introduced the bill that led to the Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 will officially open the National Self Build & Renovation Show next Friday.

Over three thousand people will be exploring a range of topics from planning and plot finding, to smart homes and solar panels at the National Self Build & Renovation Centre, the award-winning Self Build Visitor Centre based in Swindon.

Not-for-profit housing provider Selwood Housing has announced it will be providing new affordable homes for the local community in Trowbridge, as part of the development of the former West Wiltshire District Council offices on Bradley Road.

Newland Homes is constructing 79 new properties on the site, which has been derelict since 2009 and will now be known as Newland Place.

Construction firm Beard has published a book marking 125 years of the family-run firm.

Penned by deputy chairman Alan Beard, the book – 125 Years of Construction 1892–2017: A Family Story – traces the history of the Swindon-based firm through five generations of the Beard family, beginning with the somewhat wayward George Henry Beard.

Hotel chain Premier Inn has opened a new 69-bedroom facility in Marlborough. It is the 805th hotel under the brand to be opened by parent company Whitbread.

The opening has created 25 new jobs – although this is expected to increase – and fills a gap in the hospitality market created when the Ivy House Hotel on High Street was sold to Marlborough College as a boarding house for female students.

Building firm Stonewood, a specialist in high-specification refurbishment, conversion, and bespoke construction projects, has branched out into housing development with a 38-home project in north Wiltshire.

Somerbrook, at Brook Farm in Great Somerford, is the first foray into development for Stonewood Partnerships, a new offshoot of the Stonewoood Group.

A provider of shared-ownership homes has won a health and safety award for the second year running from the UK’s largest construction safety group.

Chippenham-based GreenSquare Homes was a winner at the Building Safety Group’s fifth annual Health and Safety Awards, scooping the prize for Member of the Year – Central and South.

Brexit is not a concern to those who are planning to build their own home according to a recent survey by the UK’s only national centre dedicated to the self-build sector.

Almost 400 people were questioned when they attended an open weekend at the National Self Build & Renovation Centre (NSBRC) based in Swindon during the autumn.