Stockport Homes Group executive appointed to chair North-west housing consortium

John Bowker, Executive Director of Operations at Stockport Homes Group, has been named as the new Chair of regional housing consortium, JV North.

He will take over from Wayne Gales, Chief Executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust, who has chaired the consortium since 2018. Executive Director of Development at Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, Andrea Lowman, was appointed Vice-Chair.

John Bowker starts in the role on 1 April after being appointed to the role at JV North’s last Board meeting; he commented:

“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, outgoing JV North Chair and 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.”

First set up in 2007, JV North brings together housing providers representing 125,000 social homes in the North-west, including Stockport Homes and Johnnie Johnson Housing in Stockport. The organisation is currently delivering over 4,000 homes in the 2021/26 Affordable Homes Programme, investing in the nearly £600 million with grant funding of around £200 million from Homes England.