BUILDING entrepreneur Wayne Nicholas has stripped away layers of middlemen to create a super slimmed down construction company.

He claims it makes his company more efficient than other builders and now wants to pass on the savings by helping low paid workers get a foot on the housing ladder.

And the former ornamental plasterer is doing it by offering luxury flats priced to appeal to those earning on or near the minimum wage.

Through his company, Uber, he bought the old Shipton Mill, known as Atlas Mill No 8, off Chorley Old Road, Bolton, and is in the process of transforming it into 70 studio, one and two bedroom flats, using environmentally friendly construction coupled with new technology on glass, insulation, lighting and heating.

The development will bring in £5.5million once completed and Mr Nicholas says that he is offering the apartments at around 25 per cent less than the mortgage valuation.

He said: “Through being very efficient, cutting out all the middlemen and employing my own workforce, I can save money on costs and pass on those savings to buyers.

“I could have put lower specification fittings in and sold them even cheaper. However, I wanted to make some nice luxury flats for those people on the minimum wage who are perhaps living at home and want that first place of their own.

“I’m not giving them away — I’m making a good profit — but I wanted to give something back to the community and this helps those lower earners.”

A one bedroom studio apartment is on the market for £55,950, a saving of £12,050 on the recommended valuation of £68,000.

A two bedroom flat will cost around £85,000 (£21,500 savings) and a 958 sq ft duplex flat with a mezzanine is on offer at £144,000 — £35,050 under the mortgage valuation price.

Despite the credit crunch many of the units have already been sold and he expects most will be sold by Christmas.

Mr Nicholas trained as a plasterer at the former Bolton Technical College and has worked in all aspects of the construction trade, building thousands of homes.

He set up Uber six years ago with his brother, Brett, and now directly employs around 150 skilled tradesmen.

He believes the building trade is 40 per cent inefficient in its current form, with too many layers of profit-taking — which forces up the final price to the buyer.

“I have cut out all those layers and can pass that on to the customer.

“I want to give something back — I came from a working class background with good family values and I want to help those people get on the housing ladder.”