The Berkeley Group has won the Queen's Award for Sustainable Development for the second time.

Regarded as the most prestigious accolade for business performance in the UK, this award recognises Berkeley's achievements over the five year period to 2013, including:

• Delivering more than 10% of all affordable housing in London and committing to build a total of nearly 13,000 affordable homes.

• Building 90% of its homes on brownfield land, compared to a sector average of 70% in 2012, and 91% of sites within 500m of public transport.

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• Launching the Berkeley Foundation and investing nearly £5m over three years to support disadvantaged young people.

• Developing a way to measure people's quality of life in new build housing and championing the idea of social sustainability.

• The lowest Accident Incident Rate on site, the highest score in the Considerate Constructors Scheme, and cutting the water consumption of new homes to the lowest of any top 25 housebuilder, based on published data.

The award comes only five months after Berkeley was ranked Britain's most sustainable major housebuilder for the 8th year in a row by the Next Generation Benchmark. It also came second across all industries in a vote for Britain's Most Admired Company 2013.

Rob Perrins, Managing Director of the Berkeley Group, commented: "Results like this prove that long-term thinking lies at the heart of success. You want great people working with real autonomy, aspiring to create fantastic places."

(CD/JP)