DISTRICTS in the south of the county have done well in terms of the number of new houses likely to be built there over the next 20 years, say planners.

The numbers suggested in Wycombe, south Bucks and Chiltern districts are as low or lower than those suggested in the now defunct county structure plan.

The green belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty will not be built on, if the figures, out for public consultation until the end of next month, are agreed and if the Government does not overturn them as being too low.

The district figures form the next and more easily digestible stage in the preparation of a 20-year plan for south east England, being drawn up by the South East England Regional Assembly, which stretches from Kent to Oxfordshire.

This plan, agreed in July, says 28,900 homes a year are needed in the region for the next 20 years.

On Monday, Buckinghamshire County Council cabinet set out numbers for the districts.

Cllr Rodney Royston, cabinet member for planning, said the district councils had been involved in discussions and supported the figures. Figures were based on how much space there was and current building rates, he said.

Chris Kenneford, strategic planning manager, said districts in the south had come out well.

Buckinghamshire as a whole has to find space for 1,600 homes a year. Of these more than 1,000 a year will be built in Aylesbury Vale, which is part of the Government growth area of Milton Keynes and South Midlands.

The Chiltern annual figure is 120, south Bucks' 90 and Wycombe's 330. In the overall SE plan, much of Wycombe and all of south Bucks is part of a large area called the western corridor, which includes parts of Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. It is the most economically successful part of the south east.

Here 4,900 new homes a year are planned, but most of them are destined for Reading, Basingstoke and Bracknell. Wycombe council expects to be able to find almost all the land it needs for its western corridor allocation of 300 a year from sites it already knows about and without going into the green belt or the AONB.

The council will also have to find room for 30 a year in the north of the district and can do that with no problem. In south Bucks 90 homes is fewer than in the former county structure plan and there will be no building in environmentally sensitive areas. And in Chiltern the figure of 120 is a continuation of existing building rates, lower than first suggested.

Mr Kenneford warned that the Government would not like the overall figures for the south east.

It had said the figures were far too low. "But it doesn't follow that all places in the region will have extra growth foisted onto them," he said.