Meet our Chief Officer Group

Nicholas Harris

Chief Executive

Nicholas became Stonewater’s CEO in 2016, having been chief executive of Raglan Housing Association since January 2010.

Previous to this, he held the CEO position at Raven Housing Trust for seven years and was also Group Operations Director for the Swaythling Housing Group for seven years.

He has extensive experience in both the social housing sector and local authorities and considerable knowledge of socio-economic regeneration matters.

Sue Shirt

Chief Customer Officer

Sue has worked at an executive level in a range of organisations and has dedicated her career to improving and modernising housing services and driving organisations to challenge their service delivery to meet the changing expectations of customers. Her focus is to ensure that we always demonstrate respect for those we serve and for each other, and that the customer remains central to decision making.

Sue was part of the team that created Stonewater, focusing in particular on the development of customer-facing services and tenant scrutiny. Prior to this, her roles included housing consultant for a range of organisations, managing director for a rural LSVT and head of service in a former coalfield regeneration area.

She is a graduate in Economics, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and a Member of the Chartered Management Institute. Sue is also a trustee for a domestic violence charity.

Patrick Chauvin

Chief Officer Safety, Assets and Sustainability

Patrick is a highly experienced property and asset management professional. He has held senior management positions across a range of disciplines within the housing sector, including Director of Asset Services at Amicus Horizon and Head of Strategic Portfolio at Circle.

He’s a qualified building surveyor with extensive experience in housing and construction. His career began in private practice, working for high profile clients on construction projects.

From there he moved into the housing sector, working on City Challenge in Newham. He then held a number of senior positions within Home Group, one of the largest housing associations in the UK. From there he moved to Amicus Horizon and was part of the Executive Management Team that transformed it into one of the highest performing organisations. He was then appointed to a senior position within Circle Housing as Head of Strategic Portfolio and was subsequently appointed Head of Neighbourhood Planning for Clarion Housing Group, the largest Housing Association in the UK.

Anne Costain

Chief Financial Officer

Anne is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Corporate Treasurer. She has worked in housing for over 10 years at a senior level.

Before working in housing, Anne worked in manufacturing for a number of organisations from SME to Fortune 500 and FTSE 250 – latterly as Finance Director for De la Rue in their Currency and Supply Chain division.

Jonathan Layzell

Chief Growth and Development Officer

Jonathan has an extensive background in delivering new homes with a particular personal interest in rural housing and the long-term sustainability of rural communities. He is also interested in how Registered Providers can use investment in new homes to support the growth of the construction sector as well as the wider economy. 

Jonathan is responsible for the strategic delivery of Stonewater’s housing development programmes, including the implementation of innovative affordable rental and shared ownership schemes. Stonewater’s development programme is strong, ambitious, and among the largest in the sector.

Gareth Lloyd

Chief Information and Transformation Officer

Gareth joined Stonewater as Chief Information & Transformation Officer in 2023, bringing 18 years' experience as a CIO, COO and CDO in both the private and public sectors, working in the UK and internationally. He has previously served as a non-executive director for a social housing group in the South West.

His experience includes high profile data programmes, sustainable digital transformation, Internet of Things programmes and Mergers and Acquisitions.  He has a keen interest in using tech and data for social good.