Company behind Wycombe Film Studios to abandon project amid market uncertainty

The company which planned to build Wycombe Film Studios is to abandon the project amid market uncertainty, Buckinghamshire Council has said.

Wycombe Film Studios Ltd won permission last year for the new movie-making site on council-owned land south of Wycombe Air Park, saying the project would support 1,200 jobs and generate £305 million for the local economy.

But the company – now known as Wycombe Park Ltd – is ‘unlikely to progress a film studio’ on the site due to the ‘landscape having changed commercially’, the council has said.

The unitary authority, which agreed to lease the land to the firm in 2022, said its tenant was ‘looking into ways to extract value from the site’ and had determined its ‘best exit strategy’ was to abandon the film studio and agree with the council to sell the site for use as a data centre.

Cabinet members agreed at a meeting on Thursday the council should enter into a contract with the company to dispose of the site.

John Chilver, the cabinet member for accessible housing and resources, said: “The original intention of the tenant’s was to develop as a film studio site, but this has now proved to be unviable due to the change in market circumstances.

“So, the tenants now wish to put in a new planning application for a data centre site and are asking us as freeholders of the land to support them in this.”

Last month, Wycombe Park Ltd submitted an outline planning application for a data centre development on the land and referred to the permission for a film studio on the land in its design statement.

The document reads: “As the current market conditions for the new studio space are uncertain, Wycombe Park Ltd have decided to pursue outline planning permission for data centres on the site as well.”

During Thursday’s meeting, Conservative council leader Martin Tett referred to Labour deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner’s decision to call in the rejected planning application for the proposed Marlow Film Studios development.

He said: “It is a very interesting demonstration of the existing finances of film studios because we have been castigated by the new government for having our planning committee turn down Marlow Film Studios’ application.”

He added that the council had approved an expansion of Pinewood Studios in Iver and the release of the land to the south of Wycombe Air Park for Wycombe Film Studios, which he said was now ‘unviable’.

Cllr Tett said: “The whole film and media sector, following the writers’ strike and the actors’ strike, has seen a significant contraction.”

The council leader also explained he had ‘strong views’ on Wycombe Film Studio and wanted to make the best use of council and taxpayers’ money.

The Planning Inspectorate’s public inquiry into the council’s decision to refuse Dido Property Limited permission to build Marlow Film Studios is set to begin on January 21.