After Lord Digby Jones had presented the Natural Stone Awards on behalf of Stone Federation Great Britain on Friday (5 December) he gave an inspirational talk* to the 250 people who had attended the event at Hotel Russell in London.

He pointed out that none of the projects in the Awards had been about the price, but were about the quality of the work and the value added to the stone by the companies that had used it in their projects. He said there was nothing much more like a commodity than a rock that came out of the ground, but that the companies honoured in the Stone Awards had transformed it in innovative ways – and innovation is what we are good at in the UK, he said.

While politicians always talk about how they will spend money, nobody ever talks about how they will earn it, said Lord Jones, but it is the wealth business creates that pays for the public sector.

Lord Jones was joined on stage by the newly elected President of Stone Federation Great Britain, Graeme Haddon, and sports presenter Jim Rosenthal, who introduced the Award winners. Behind the scenes, as ever, the Voice of the Balls and Strictly Come Dancing, Alan Dedicoat, provided a commentary about the winning projects.

The Stone Awards, presented every other year by Stone Federation, are the stone industry's major celebration of what makes stone such an important building material and such a vital ingredient in so many areas of construction – walls, floors, hard landscaping, repair & restoration, even public art.

The short video above shows the winners receiving their Awards, along with some of what Lord Jones and Jim Rosenthal said during the event, as well as comments from the Chairman of the Judges, John Burton. A full report on the winning projects, with those Highly Commended and Commended also listed, is in the December issue of Natural Stone Specialist magazine. 

*You can watch Lord Digby Jones' talk in full on YouTube at youtu.be/F_NcnFb3YeM.