DEVELOPERS 'trying to make a quick buck' must be stopped from land-banking, frustrated politicians have urged after it was revealed that building work is yet to start on hundreds of new homes in Bolton.

No development work at all has begun on more than 700 homes across the borough which have had planning approval for at least 18 months, according to town hall figures.

They include one massive plan for almost 300 town centre flats and a designs for five apartment blocks in Farnworth which Bolton Council first approved 10 years ago.

The string of delays — many of which are on brownfield sites in desperate need of regeneration — is a source of great exasperation for council bosses.

They come at a time when large developers are exploiting the council's lack of an approved five-year housing supply plan to secure approval for large new estates on protected land.

In total, there are around 9,000 undeveloped planning permissions in Bolton and councillors say the town hall would have met its housing supply targets if landowners would stop 'taking the mickey'.

Meanwhile, the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) — a housing blueprint which had outlined a need for 16,000 new homes in the borough — is being rewritten after widespread criticism that it was too developer-led.

Cllr Elaine Sherrington, the council's cabinet member for housing, said: "Land-banking makes you wonder, when we are giving planning permissions, whether we will ever see these developments happen. It does go through your mind, even though we have no choice and have to stick to the law.

"Is it just a case of someone trying to make a quick buck by selling the land on? They just use it to make money."

According to town hall planners, there are currently seven undeveloped applications for 30 or more homes that have been granted full planning permission before the current financial year, where building work could have started on the site already.

The biggest of those is a plan for a 293-apartment complex on land near Moor Lane.

Councillors gave the application the thumbs-up in December, 2015, but Warrington-based developers PHD1 went into administration last year and the land remains undeveloped.

The site of the vacant Chorley Street Car Park is another that is waiting for builders to move in.

Developers Bolton Site Ltd had their plans for 103 apartments and 17 townhouses approved in July, 2016.

Jones Homes — the firm that is building 98 homes at the Last Drop Village in Bromley Cross — also has permission to create 106 new properties on land on the former Roscoe’s Farm in Westhoughton.

That approval was granted in May, 2016, but no work has started on the greenfield site.

The longest-standing of the eight applications is a Harron Homes plan to build five apartment blocks, comprising 64 apartments, in Farnworth.

The developer had its plans for the land at Old Hall Street approved by Bolton Council in 2007, but has twice had the permission's expiry date extended from the usual three year limit.

Controversial plans to convert an empty office building opposite an army reserve base in Nelson Street — which were objected to because of a 'terrorist threat' — also remain unfulfilled.

Also listed among the town's as yet undeveloped plans are designs for 41 dwellings on the site of the former SS Osmund and Andrew RC Primary School, and the conversion of the Spa Mill into 32 apartments.

Cllr David Greenhalgh, Bolton's Conservative leader, said: "Developers need to be penalised heavily for non-development on a site, both financially and through a reversal of planning consent.

"These penalties need to be tough, but this whole situation is not helped when the GMSF is allowed to become overwhelmingly developer-led, offering up our green belt on a plate.

"Bolton Council had a fully approved Allocations Plan, which identified sites for housing development, and which committed Bolton to its quota for new housing.

"Because this plan was challenged at appeal, and because this council walked away without putting up a good enough fight, we lost that appeal.

"But that does not mean that we, as a council, roll over when every piece of protected open land comes before planning for fear of loosing again. We should always be prepared to fight against development on open protected land and green belt."

This year has seen the Government give developers the go-ahead to build 129 homes in Westhoughton, after the council lost an appeal decision over land at Bowlands Hey.

A further decision is due on plans for 300 homes at Lee Hall.

The first 112 of an expected 1,700 houses planned for the Horwich Loco Works were also given formal approval, while Peel Holdings wants to build around 1,300 homes across the Hulton Park Estate and Horwich Golf Course.

In an attempt to speed up one long-overdue development, Bolton Council ordered that building work on the former Bolton Open Golf Club site in Harwood had to start within a year.

But those efforts proved to be in vain, as the Government overturned the decision on the grounds that a 12-month deadline, as opposed to the usual three years, would put developers off buying the site.

Cllr Sean Hornby, Bolton UKIP leader, said: "We are keeping our end of the deal by granting planning permissions. If they had been acted on then we would have met our housing allocation.

"But, for whatever reason, the developers are land-banking.

"For some time now, developers have been taking the mickey out of Bolton Council."

In a bid to kickstart the redevelopment of a number of key central sites such as Church Wharf, the council has borrowed £100 million and hopes private investment will result in a billion pound transformation of the town centre.

Cllr Sherrington added: "We have great difficulties with this for a number of reasons.

"Firstly, the Government used to have a pot of money that could be accessed to help if there was a problem with building on some land. That was significantly reduced and I think there was only a couple of million pounds for the whole country, which is no use.

"Another thing is the spatial framework, which the government has told us to do.

"That leaves builders thinking that they are going to be getting a load of nice green land that they can build on instead of brownfield sites.

"There seems to be some thinking that people don't want to live on brownfield sites and I don't agree with that at all.

"Unfortunately, the choice is not going to be there if developers only want to build on the green belt.

"We are trying our best and we have borrowed this £100 million to try and overcome this problem and get properties built."

The Bolton News has attempted to contact each of the developers named above.