Blimey! and I thought I had a low opinion of house builders and new homes!
Like you, I worked in construction management in housebuilding and on commercial construction projects for over 30 years.
Regarding the NHBC Pride in the Job Awards....
The NHBC do not hand these out to site managers that don't care or who build poor quality homes.
I agree, it helps if the site is tidy (which it should be anyway!) if their are NHBC flags everywhere and if the house builder uses the NHBC for Building Control and training services. Site managers do not know in advance when the area inspector is coming to judge. The local inspector judges throughout the year on each visit.
It is true, there is a "recipe" for winning an NHBC Quality Award. Taking the local inspector and his manager for a lunch every month is a good idea and builds relationships.This is how some
poor site managers can win NHBC Awards, with very unhappy customers on their sites working for the likes of for example Taylor Wimpey.
Regarding brickwork, I would disagree that it is not checked. During my career, I always went on scaffolding to check that cavities were clean with a torch, that expansion joints and DPCs and cavity trays were in the right place and constructed correctly and that all joints were fully filled and the correct lintels were used in the correct locations. Anything wrong was taken down and re done at the trade's cost. It was after all them and not me that built it incorrectly or sub-standard. Any trade cannot be paid again for correcting defective or sub standard work. In my experience, "rubble stackers" are some of the worst when it comes to building care, pride and quality.
Whilst I agree, that site management and especially directors at regional and board level, don't care one jot about quality and standards. But it must be said that it is the trades that build the houses, not the site management of the house builders. They just co ordinate it and pay for the land, work and materials.
However the poor quality that does exist is because site managers all over the country don't do anything about it and their supervising managers and directors care even less!