“Nearly all” of Wycombe’s affordable housing need will be met, according to the council, after fresh fears were raised this week young people across the country will never get on the property ladder.

National campaigners have raised concerns that hundreds of thousands of homes set to be built on green belt land across the country are not classed as “affordable”.

This comes after leader of Bucks County Council, Martin Tett, last month said new government planning rules could result in the development of even more protected land in Bucks.

However district planning chiefs have insisted an “appropriate” amount of affordable housing will be included in future development plans for the area, particularly where land that has been released from the green belt will be built on.

According to South Bucks and Chiltern District Councils space for 2,500 new affordable homes will be needed across both districts – or 27 per cent of the 9,100 homes factored in to the joint local plan.

Wycombe District Council confirmed there is a need of 3,100 affordable homes in the area – “nearly all” of which will be met over the next 15 years.

Spokesman for WDC, Sue Robinson said: “We have assessed the sites being proposed in the new plan and when combined with sites that already have planning permission have estimated that we will be able to meet nearly all of this need.

“This includes assessing the viability of the greenbelt sites the Council is proposing be developed to check that they will provide enough affordable homes (and other policy requirements) required by the plan.”

WDC will be factoring 10,975 homes into its local plan – after Aylesbury agreed to take on an additional 2,225 of Wycombe’s housing requirement.

Cabinet member for planning at WDC, David Johncock, took the opportunity to assure residents that although some green belt land has been released for development it “does not justify” developing any more protected land.

He said: “Work on our emerging new local plan therefore suggests removing these few sites amounting to less than one per cent of the district’s Green Belt and does not justify releasing any further land from the Green Belt as a matter of principle and in-line with current government policy.”

Spokesman for Chiltern and South Bucks district councils, Connie Primmer, added an “appropriate level” of affordable housing will be required for housing developments on released green belt sites.

She said: “We are developing our new joint local plan which aims to meet the needs of our communities including providing affordable housing in the districts. We would require an appropriate level of affordable housing on new developments on released green belt sites.

“We work with developers to ensure affordable housing is provided on new sites where appropriate, for example the recently completed housing developments in Taplow which included affordable housing for local people.”