Who we are

At LiveWest, we believe in a home for everyone.

We own and manage over 36,000 homes across the South West, from Cornwall to Gloucestershire. We have ambitious plans to invest more than £2bn in developing 16,000 new homes in the region over the next 10 years.

This is part of LiveWest taking huge steps towards alleviating the region’s housing shortage, in an area of high housing need as well as high house prices which makes accessing housing particularly challenging for many families.

We offer homes for affordable rent and shared ownership sale. We also build homes for private sale, to generate profits which we then use to provide and build more affordable homes.

We take the time to listen to, understand and learn from our customers. We focus on thriving as a business and employer so we can deliver more homes and even better services.

As well as meeting housing demand, it’s easy to forget the vital role that affordable homes contribute to economic development and prosperity, enabling local companies to recruit the workforce they need from their communities. LiveWest’s growth strategy will not only contribute to economic growth in the South West but sustain up to 10,000 jobs in the building industry and its supply chain.

We were formed in March 2018 through the merger of Knightstone Housing and DCH, and since then we have built on the best of both organisations. We have recently invested in new-build offices in Exeter and Tolvaddon to complement its Weston-super-Mare office, where we are also making major investment. Combined with touchdown points for our many mobile workers, our aim is to offer a contemporary working environment with an emphasis on building a shared culture.

We are a member of Homes for the South West, a group of the largest developing housing associations in the south west, making the case for investment in our region.

Find out more about us here.

Our board

Linda Nash

Linda Nash
Chair

Linda was appointed to the Board of Knightstone in 2014 and the Board of LiveWest in 2018. Linda is a founding director of Nash Bevan Associates, a trustee on the Board of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Chairman of North Somerset Community Partnership and Kings School's Taunton. Linda has also been Chairman of Somerset Partnership NHS Trust and on the Board of Musgrove Park Hospital. She was also a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Institute for Governance Awards.

Paul Crawford

Paul Crawford
Chief Executive

Paul has worked in property management and residential development for the past 27 years. Prior to being appointed as CEO of LiveWest he held the position of Group Chief Executive at DCH for nine years and Managing Director at Sovereign HA for five years. He is currently chair of Homes for the South West (formerly HAILO), an influencing and lobby group focusing on investment to address the various housing challenges in the South West.

Melvyn Garrett

Melvyn Garrett
Deputy Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director of Finance

Prior to LiveWest, Melvyn was the DCH Group Director of Finance/Deputy Chief Executive. Melvyn has extensive finance and operational experience, having joined DCH from Motorola Mobility in 2013, where he was Europe, Middle East, and Africa Finance and Operations Director. He also previously held finance, strategy and chief executive positions in the transport, electronics and distribution sectors; with eight years spent in the USA.

Andrew Wiles

Andrew Wiles

Andrew has extensive, senior-level, experience as an affordable housing professional, both as a practitioner and as a policymaker. From 1995 to 2009 he was the Housing Corporation's Regional Director for the South West. Andrew joined the DCH board in February 2013 and was appointed to the LiveWest board in 2018.

John Newbury

John Newbury

John is a qualified housing professional with wide and senior experience as a local government director, an advisor to government, to the commercial sector and to social landlords. He has been Director of Housing & Regeneration for a public services PLC and a non-executive director. John joined the DCH board in October 2016 and was appointed to the LiveWest board in 2018. John is also Chairman of Richmond Housing Partnership.

Tom Vaughan

Tom Vaughan

Tom is an experienced board director, who has lived in North Somerset for over 20 years. Most of his career was spent in leadership roles at Unilever and BP, and he was a Marketing and Strategy Director for six years at Affinity Sutton. He has a number of non-executive posts including Fairtrade, the NUS, and Freedom Food (RSPCA). He is also a volunteer and director at Clevedon Pier. Tom was appointed to the Knightstone board in May 2016 and the board of LiveWest in 2018.