The company transforming the site of a derelict furniture warehouse in Wycombe says it’s ahead of the game in the drive to build homes on land that’s become redundant for its previous purpose.

A spokesman for developer Regency Residential told the Free Press this week: “The £65m development in the Leigh Street regeneration area on the west side of town shows how we’re already putting the government’s plan for housing into action.”

New offices to meet the needs of businesses as well as 228 flats will be created on the two-and-a-half acres a mile from the town centre and station. The first phase will produce 118 studios and one- and two-bedroom flats. They are already underway.

The second and third phases will provide a further 110 apartments and duplexes, some converted from a retained part of the old warehouse.

Prices are expected to start from £199,000 when the flats come on the market. Help to Buy will help to ease the financial strain for first time buyers and mover-uppers while the financial initiative remains in its present form until 2021.

After that the Tory’s home-ownership incentive will only be for first time buyers. The new development is named The Old Works as a permanent reminder of the glory days when Wycombe was known as the furniture making capital of Europe before Scandinavian imports undercut the prices of hand-crafted English furniture.

The Leigh Street site was bought by the furniture manufacturer WM Birch in 1901. The family’s cabinet-making business was established in Wycombe in 1840. The purchase of a second base near the town centre was an expansionary move. One of the designers employed by the company when the Art Nouveau movement first made waves in the art world towards the end of the 19thcentury was George Walton who’d worked with Charles Rennie Macintosh. By 1938 there were 350 on the pay roll in Leigh Street. Eventually the firm was bought by Gomme and the manufacturing side was moved to Risborough.

“It’s good to hear that accelerated housing delivery is still at the top of the government’s agenda with a further £500 million being committed to the £5.5 billion strong Housing Infrastructure Fund,” said the spokesman for Regency Residential, the sales and marketing arm of the MCR Property Group developing the scheme at The Old Works.

The parent company currently has £2bn worth of developments in the pipeline, mixed tenure sites “to provide homes to meet the needs of varied groups from first time buyers to young families and downsizers.

The group welcomed the government proposal announced in last week’s Budget to consult on new permitted development rights “allowing upward extensions above commercial premises and residential properties including blocks of flats.

“It is welcome news to meet the demand in housing considering the amount of commercial stock that is ripe for redevelopment in Buckinghamshire and nationwide.”

The spokesman added: “Help to Buy continues to offer much needed support for countless people wanting to get on the housing ladder. Although the government has decided that beyond 2023 they will not be committing to the scheme, given its huge success to date, we feel this [was Chancellor Philip Hammond’s] only discouraging statement in relation to housing and the improvement of local communities.”