Paul Pedley, chief executive of Redrow, said: "I've known John for many years, so when he left Wilcon I put the call in to him."
Pedley said he had recruited Tutte to strengthen senior management after Redrow's acquisition of Tay Homes, completed this week.
He said: "With the Tay acquisition, we'll be growing our northern offices, so we also wanted to make sure we strengthened our management in the southern region to balance things out."
Tutte's appointment comes days after Graeme McCallum was named as his replacement at Wilcon. McCallum, who left Alfred McAlpine Homes last year after the takeover by Wimpey, joined Wilcon in November as a regional director.
He helped with a strategic review of the company. McCallum has taken over the day-to-day running of Wilcon.
Chairman Allan Leighton, best known for his involvement with Asda and lastminute.com, had been acting as chief executive after Tutte's departure.
I’ve know John for many years, so when he left Wilcon I put the call in to him ... We wanted to strengthen management in the southern region to balance things out
Redrow chief executive Paul Pedley
McCallum's appointment was welcomed by analysts, who had been concerned about the lack of housebuilding expertise on Wilcon's main board.
One said: "McCallum knows housebuilding inside out. He has the experience needed and did a good job at McAlpine. It is a good move by Leighton, but it should have happened last year."
Leighton said: "Graeme's extensive experience has been of enormous value to us and he has played a major part in the strategic review."
He added that the review's findings would be released next month along with the group's results for the year to 31 December.
Wilcon announced that John Coker, a regional managing director, had been appointed chairman of the group's Midlands, northern and Lancashire regions.
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