The council has announced it will prioritise development that is “well connected” to transport hubs as the county prepares to grow by 45,000 homes in the next two decades.

Bucks County Council has laid out its “ground rules” for putting together an infrastructure plan to support the District Local Plans.

Concentrated housing, employment development, well connected homes, and housing growth that “respects” the county’s beauty spots will be BCC’s main priorities while planning services and infrastructure needs.

BCC has been working with the four district councils to form their local plans – which has set out around 500 to 700 homes a year for Wycombe over the next 20 years.

Deputy cabinet member for planning and environment, councillor Clive Harriss, said: “We're facing an unprecedented period of growth in housing, in population, and in the economy, and this will make significant demands on infrastructure.

"Housing growth is the vision of the four district councils and we want to work closely with them so that the County Council's infrastructure delivery matches their vision, and we can continue to develop our beautiful county as a place people want to live and work."

While BCC does not have a budget to pay for infrastructure, council bosses plan to research different funding avenues included developer contributions, the government’s local growth fund and the housing infrastructure fund.

The county council’s Strategic Infrastructure Plan is designed to help the district council’s select the best areas for development.

Leader of BCC, Cllr Martin Tett, said: “What is really important is that this growth is in the right place and is accompanied by the essential services such as roads, schools, broadband, doctors, etc. that people have a right to expect.

"The Bucks Strategic Infrastructure Plan is designed to help district colleagues identify the best places for growth and suggest how money can be found for key infrastructure.

“Bottom line is that we need to be shaping how the county grows, rather than having future generations say ‘who let this happen?”

The infrastructure plan is being compiled together with local partnerships, a group jointly owned by the HM treasury and the Local Government Association.

The next step BCC will take is look at the cost of infrastructure, how it may be funded and how it can be built to best utilise resources.