Holiday let owners asked to pay £20k for village upkeep

HOLIDAY let owners in an area of Norfolk dubbed “Chelsea-on-sea” are being asked to pay £20,000 toward the cost of maintaining the village.

Burnham Market parish council is writing to around 200 people requesting they each give £100 for the upkeep of the Norfolk settlement. The funds will go towards street lighting, mowing greens, maintaining playing fields and playgrounds, the parish council said.

Second homeowners in the tourist hotspot are facing a council tax surcharge on their properties from 2025.

But owners of furnished holiday lets will be exempt from the levy as they pay business rates instead of council tax.

Dennis Clark, Burnham Market parish council chairman, said: “We just want to ask them if they’ll make a contribution, it’s totally voluntary. We’re asking them to do the village a favour because they don’t pay council tax.”

Mr Clark said the letters will be sent out in March or April, and claimed one couple he spoke with described the fee as “fair”.

The owner of one £1,600-a-week let, a four-bed property near the centre of the village, who did not wish to be named, said: “I think it’s a fair comment, it’s a fair thing to ask.

“I think everyone needs to work together on these things, it’s a discussion that needs to be had.”

The village, which is often referred to as Chelsea-on-sea, due to its popularity among Londoners, voted to ban second homeowners in October last year.

It is thought one in four properties in Burnham Market is a second home and that the number of full-time residents has fallen by a fifth in the past two decades. More than 80 per cent of 201 respondents to a referendum supported a plan which states newly built homes should not be used as second residences or holiday homes. The proposal states new dwellings would only be supported if developers guarantee the property will be the “occupant’s sole or main residence”.

In Wales, local authorities have the power to increase council tax by up to 300 per cent on second homes. Similar powers are tabled to be introduced in England from April 2025 to boost funding for local services.