Jewson has opened nominations for its 2016 Building Better Communities competition, which seeks to transform community projects across Great Britain.

Following its successful launch in 2015, the competition has returned with a new £250,000 prize fund and now needs tradespeople to put forward their ideas for local building projects that are in need of a helping hand.

This year, applicants can choose to nominate a project for either the main prize of a £150,000 ‘My Comfort’ building transformation, or a share of a £100,000 regional prize fund, where they can ask for anything from £500 to £10,000 to spend on building materials.

Tradespeople have until 29 April, 2016 to nominate their project. Nominations can be made via www.buildingbettercommunities.co.uk or the Jewson Facebook page at http://facebook.com/jewsonuk.

A new addition for 2016 is the top £150,000 prize, which will see one project receive a transformation using the Saint-Gobain ‘My Comfort’ building principles.

Recognising that we spend around 90% of our time inside, the My Comfort approach focuses on creating buildings that are comfortable and healthy, good for the people who use them and good for the environment. My Comfort creates buildings that are warm, quiet, well-lit and have good air quality, but don’t cost the earth to run.

“Up and down the country, we know there are community buildings that are, quite simply, cold, dark, damp and noisy places to be,” said David Fenton, marketing director at Jewson.

“As part of our 2016 Building Better Communities campaign, we need your help in finding these spaces and giving them a well-deserved transformation.

“We want to take these building horrors and turn them into warm, inviting and efficient spaces that the whole community can enjoy. New for 2016, we’ve upped the prize fund to a quarter of a million pounds, and made it easier for the community to get the exact support they need for their project.”

In 2015, Jewson received over 2,000 entries into the competition and as a result, it helped to change the future of 14 community projects across Great Britain.

Just one of these projects is the RNLI Penlee Lifeboat Station in Penzance, which was awarded the £50,000 top prize.

Elaine Trethowan, volunteer press officer at RNLI Penlee Lifeboat Station, said: “I’d highly recommend getting involved in the competition – having the support from Jewson was really important to making the dream of a new lifeboat station a reality.”

A number of suppliers have committed to supporting Building Better Communities 2016, including British Gypsum, Marshalls, VELUX, Polypipe and Tarmac.