There could be up to 800 properties across Bolton town centre that could be redeveloped with the right investment, town hall has heard.

This comes with housing developments already underway across the town including on central street, at Moor Lane and soon to get underway at Church Wharf.

But a recent meeting of Bolton Council discussing the town centre “masterplan” heard how the borough may yet be tasked with building more houses still thanks to rising government targets.

Cllr John Walsh, of Astley Bridge, said: “Yes, we might come somewhere towards the current housing target of 787.

“It doesn’t come anywhere near to a 70 per cent increase to 1,300.

Church Wharf is another major site in the town centreChurch Wharf is another major site in the town centre (Image: Newsquest)

“Where in the masterplan are we going to seek to create that additional capacity if government do in fact seek to those additional quotas of the quoted 1,300 per annum?”

Cllr Walsh had been speaking at a meeting of the council’s place scrutiny committee, which had been looking at town and district centre regeneration projects.

These regeneration projects have included building major new housing projects around the town centre, with Bolton currently working to a target of 787 new homes a year until 2037.

But there could be yet more demand for new homes in the borough after proposals were set out by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government earlier in August.

This could see Bolton’s target increased by more than 650 new homes a year to a total of more than 1,300, as referred to by Cllr Walsh.

In response, assistant director of development and regeneration Paul Whittingham told the committee members that the council had various ways of creating new homes.

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He said that as well as plans to create a new “Mayoral Development Corporation” for Bolton the authority could also look at “compulsory purchase orders” as a "last resort."

Mr Whittingham also said that there were various properties around the town centre that could be converted with the right investment and planning.

He said: “If you look across the whole town centre there is probably something in the region of 500 to 800 properties that could come forward quite easily across the town centre if we give those landowners and those building owners to evidence and the justification to make that investment of £1M, £2M now.”

He said that various developers and banks like Lloyds and NatWest had expressed their interest in investing in Bolton.