Buckinghamshire’s housing stock grew by 2,550 or 1.2 per cent in 2017-18, the 9th highest rate among England’s 27 county council areas, ranking 10th among the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).
While Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern saw an increase in additional homes, both South Bucks and Wycombe saw smaller increases than last year. However, despite this slowing in the rate of growth, all districts saw housing stock rise by more than the average recorded since 2012/13.
Table 1: Housing growth in 2017-18
Source: DCLG, 2018 (live tables 100 & 123)
Newly built dwellings made up 79.3 per cent of new homes in Buckinghamshire in 2017/18, compared to 85.1 per cent across England as a whole. While conversions were more common in Buckinghamshire than nationally, the biggest difference was in change of use, which accounted for 17.2 per cent of new homes in Buckinghamshire, the 6th highest share among the 27 county council areas, compared to only 12.9 per cent nationally.
Permitted development rights enabled the conversion of commercial premises into 285 new homes in Buckinghamshire last year, change of use from offices adding 274 of the 285 homes, with conversion from agricultural use accounting for the remaining 11. In Buckinghamshire, almost one in ten new homes (9.8 per cent) were delivered through change of use under permitted development, the second highest share among county council areas behind Surrey (20.0 per cent) and 4th among LEPs. South Bucks and Chiltern respectively saw 19.4 and 15.6 per cent of new homes delivered by change of use through permitted development, with Wycombe and Aylesbury Vale at 8.9 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.
The raw data are available here >
Table 2: Housing growth by LEP in 2017/18
Source: DCLG, 2018 (live tables 100 and 123)
