Jephson and Raglan merge to create Stonewater

The new registered provider manages around 31,000 homes across England, with £160m in turnover and £1.6bn in assets.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) gave the go ahead to the merger in September 2014.

Appropriate rule changes required by the HCA and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) were finalised for the merger to take effect from 31 December 2014.

Former Jephson CEO Bob Strachan is chief executive of the new group. Raglan CEO Nicholas Harris becomes deputy CEO.

Raglan board chair George Blunden becomes new group chair, while Jephson’s board chair Michael Collins moves to deputy.

Mr Blunden said: ‘With the ever-growing need for affordable housing, Stonewater will deliver meaningful benefits for residents, employees, the business and our partners. I’m delighted and proud that one of our first achievements will be leading one of the UK’s largest development programmes which will provide more than 7,000 new affordable homes over the next ten years.”

Mr Strachan said: ‘We have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us and will be focusing on continuing to deliver excellent customer service while making a steady transformation in our operations to achieve our ambitious goals.’

The intention to merge Jephson and Raglan was announced in autumn 2013, following exploratory talks that summer. The initial discussions had also included Rosebery.

Merger work included developing a business case for the HCA, showing the new, merged organisation had the strength and capacity to deliver its ambitious plans.

The group operates in three divisions across England through an east and north division, south division and west division.