Women in Construction Week: celebrating team Novus

Delivering excellence on complex projects

Our business is built around our people and the communities we touch through our projects. To deliver excellence every time, our team is crucial – applying their expertise to overcome complexity and deliver to the highest standards.

Project Manager Amy Fitzsimon is a fantastic example of this. Named Health & Safety Champion at the Novus Awards, and chosen as a Novus Shining Star in 2025, she has earned recognition across the business for her leadership, dedication and proactive approach.

Collaborating with teams right across the business, including Safety, Health, Environment and Assurance (SHEA), Amy ensures every task is carried out safely – something that’s reflected in strong SHE and SMIF inspection results, as well as positive feedback from clients. And Amy doesn’t stop there. Like many people across our business, she’s a champion of diversity and apprenticeships within the construction industry.

Developing the next generation of construction professionals

Alongside strong representation at leadership levels, we are also nurturing award-winning success among early-career professionals.

Rebekah Cliff, a Trainee Safety, Health, Environment and Assurance (SHEA) Advisor who joined Novus as a 17-year-old apprentice in 2022, has rapidly built national recognition. After winning Novus Apprentice of the Year and being shortlisted for Health & Safety Champion, she has since been named Rising Safety Professional of the Year by the Northwest Construction Health & Safety Group and Apprentice of the Year at the Communities & Housing Investment in People (CHIP) Awards. She was also shortlisted for both the Design & Build UK Women in Construction Awards and the Housing Awards 2024.

Working within the SHEA function, Rebekah has played a key role in rolling out Novus’ e20 SHE digital platform and is now a central point of support for operational teams across the business.

On site, Anna-Louise Johnson is forging a strong career as an apprentice Painter and Decorator. Recognised internally for her professionalism, technical skill and exceptional work ethic, and winning Trade Apprentice of the Year at the Novus 2025 awards, Anna represents a new generation of women entering site-based trade roles – an area where female representation remains particularly low.

Continuing a long-standing family legacy, Olivia Seddon, a 6th-generation member of the Seddon family who founded Novus, began her journey with the business in 2024 as a Trainee Customer Liaison Officer on the Onward Homes SHDF Wave 2 retrofit programme in Liverpool. Olivia has since progressed into a Quantity Surveying apprenticeship. During her time as a CLO, her team helped deliver £50,000 of social value investment across 14 projects, generating an estimated £377,000 in wider social and economic impact for local communities.

Championing the future of construction

At Novus, we’re driving change from within. At almost every level of our business, women are playing critical roles – from defining our strategy through to delivering on the ground. But their work doesn’t end there, with their passion often extending far beyond the boundaries of Novus.

Claire Bailey-Jones, Business Development and Marketing Director, and Gemma Edwards, Senior Business Development and Marketing Manager, are championing women across the sector through their work with Women in Social Housing (WISH). Serving on the North West and Yorkshire and Humber boards respectively, our team is actively supporting women across housing and construction.

These efforts demonstrate our ambitions, not just to support the role of women in construction internally, but to encourage it across the industry. 

That’s why, on a special week, where we celebrate Women in Construction, International Women’s Day and World Book Day, we’ve announced the launch of I Can Do That Too – a children’s book designed to inspire young people to explore opportunities in construction. Written by our every own Bid Writer, Lily Davies, alongside shareholder, Sophie Seddon, it tells Ava’s story – a brave little girl who challenges the way people think and truly embodies the qualities we see every day in our sector: bravery, strength, resilience and talent.

These stories of our people and the work they do through Novus, industry-wide organisations and even storytelling, demonstrate the power of women in construction. It’s not just about creating an environment where women can thrive today, but about building the foundations for generations to come and inspiring them every day through our actions.

As Women in Construction Week shines a spotlight on the sector, our focus remains on building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve and ensuring the next generation of women see construction not as an exception, but as an opportunity.