FURNITURE firm Frank Hudson is to move its manufacturing and distribution operation out of High Wycombe – because bosses say the town is too expensive.

The company is to expand by taking these operations from Rosebery Avenue, off London Road, to a unit in Worminghall, near Thames, Oxfordshire.

Some 20 workers will move to the new facility – and six to eight new jobs will be created at the firm, set up in 1947.

It is the latest blow to the town’s historic furniture industry. In June 70 jobs were lost at Joynson Holland in Desborough (see link, bottom of story).

Managing director Timothy Hudson said: “I’m slightly disappointed we have had to move out of the town.

“It is the cost of industrial commercial land and also the Business rates, they are very high. We have to look where our best pound goes.

“It is a shame really, we are one of the last of the Mohicans, so to speak.”

The firm will keep its office staff and showroom at Rosebery Avenue.

Wycombe District Council deputy leader Tony Green, responsible for economic development, said: “It is sad when established businesses, or any business, feel they have to move out.

“It is following what a number of furniture makers have done.”

But he said there were fewer empty shops in the town centre. Studies infamously showed up to a quarter were not used (see link, bottom of story).

Cllr Green said: “More shops are opening than closing, which is a good sign.”

Business rates, officially known as national non-domestic rates, are set by central government and only collected by the council.

These are unevenly redistributed throughout the UK by the Government, he said.