DEVELOPERS hope to start work on the first phase of a £200m housing scheme for a city golf course by July.

Barratt Homes North East today (Monday, January 6) said it “will” start work on four new developments over the next six months, including an exclusive 61-home estate on Mount Oswald golf course, in Durham City.

Durham County Council granted outline planning permission for nearly 300 homes, accommodation for 1,000 students, offices and community facilities on the 95-acre site off South Road last February.

Although plans for 61 detached four and five-bedroom homes worth £450,000 to £750,000 each were the subject of a public exhibition in October, no detailed planning application has yet been submitted.

However, a spokesman said this would come shortly and it hoped to receive detailed permission soon.

Detailed planning permission has already been granted for 56 homes at Milburn Green, Burnopfield; 48 for the historic La Sagesse site in Jesmond, Newcastle; and 63 at Scholars’ Wynd, Lemington, Newcastle.

Together, the schemes would provide 228 homes worth £65m and support around 450 jobs, the firm said.

Fenton Hewitt, sales director at Barratt North East, said: “The Prime Minister has said again and again that one of the best ways to boost economic growth and get people working is through building more homes.

“The plans we are announcing today show exactly how that theory works in practice.

“The new sites will provide much-needed new homes for local people at a time when there is a chronic shortage of housing.”