North West social house building consortium JV North has appointed its new Chair. John Bowker, who is Executive Director of Operations at Stockport Homes Group, takes over from Wayne Gales who has been in the post since 2018.

John Bowker starts on 1 April after being appointed to the role at JV North’s last Board meeting. Executive Director of Development at Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, Andrea Lowman, was appointed Vice-Chair.

John Bowker said: “I’m really proud to have been appointed JV North Chair and have big shoes to fill following on from Wayne who safely guided the consortium through the pandemic and the creation of a £560 million framework. The consortium is in a very good place in terms of having a strong development pipeline of c.4,000 homes to deliver in the current Affordable Homes Programme and procedural systems encouraging the sharing of knowledge and mitigating risk. I’m now looking forward to the challenges ahead and JV North will continue working closely with Homes England to explore ways we can do more together to help address the housing crisis.”

Wayne Gales, who is Chief Executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust, said: “I would like to thank members and all our stakeholders for their hard work and support during my tenure. JV North is in very safe hands with John and Andrea taking over and as a founding member, we at Weaver Vale will continue supporting the consortium to help us, and other members, deliver high-quality affordable homes across the North West.”

Since forming in 2007, consortium members have built the equivalent of 3.5 homes every working day. JV North is currently building over 4,000 homes in the 2021/26 Affordable Homes Programme investing in the region of £600 million with grant funding of c.£200 million from Homes England.