HOUSEBUILDING in Wycombe district over the next 20 years will not meet people's needs, according to the leader of the Labour group on Buckinghamshire County Council, Julia Wassell.

She said 1,200 homes a year were needed to clear waiting lists and though she did not think that number was possible, it ought to be more than the 330 being planned.

People would have to move away from Wycombe to Aylesbury where houses were being built she said, speaking at a county council meeting on Thursday, September 22.

"These are genuine needs," she said. "This is public housing we are talking about."

Business people too say the local figures will not meet the needs of a growing workforce or deal with the backlog of people who needed affordable homes.

But development in Wycombe is held back because the council cannot develop in the Chilterns AONB or the green belt.

The county council's cabinet member for strategic planning, Cllr Rodney Royston, told Cllr Wassell some people would not be able to afford to live in some areas it was fact of life.

"We have said we want to protect the Chilterns AONB and the green belt," he said.

He agreed affordable housing was needed to meet demand, but he said: "We have not met demands since the war and we are not likely to do it tomorrow."

Housing figures for Bucks for the next 20 years form part of the South East plan agreed in July at regional level.

District figures are now out for public consultation, with meetings throughout Wycombe this month.

The South East Plan says 28,900 homes a year are needed in the region, while Buckinghamshire has to find space for 1,600.

At district level more than 1,000 a year will be built in Aylesbury Vale, in Chiltern 120, South Bucks 90 and Wycombe 330.

Tory councillor for the Chalfonts and Seer Green, Martin Tett, said he was worried about urban intensification, which includes building homes in back gardens.

Gardens have been reclassified as brown field sites, so can be used to meet the Government target of 60 per cent of new homes being built on previously developed land.

Wycombe District Council is developing a design guide for urban development so that if gardens are built on, the design is done well.