Village votes to ban second homes in bitter fight against Londoners buying up
Residents of a postcard-perfect village in Norfolk are currently split on whether to ban second homeowners - mostly from London - from living there.
Londoners with money to spare flock to Burnham Market in droves to plot up in holiday rentals to escape the city. The village, on Norfolk's north coast, has even earned itself the moniker of "Chelsea-on-Sea" due to the overwhelming number of visitors from the capital, and for its fancy restaurants and charming boutique shops.
But the major influx of outsiders has lead house prices to surge, with locals now unable to afford houses in the town they grew up in. Key workers are even being forced to commute into work from surrounding villages, where prices remain low. Another gripe from the locals is that the village's population is seasonal as it becomes "hollowed out" during the quieter months as many of the holiday homes are left vacant.
Last week it became official as more than 80 per cent of residents voted to stop outsiders from buying second homes. The ban will stop existing properties from being turned into holiday homes. All new developments will need to be "principal residences" - meaning somewhere the owner inhabits for most of their time.
Burnham Market Parish Council chairman Dennis Clark said: "When we put out an early document for people to comment on, they could do so from their armchair. But for this they had to go out and they have made their feelings clear."
London flat for rent for £1,400 a month with bed tucked away in kitchen cupboard
But many business owners say the "outsiders" are a vital source of income, and that they wouldn't be able to survive the tough economic landscape without them. Other residents get on well with the getaway crowd, saying many have been returning for generations and are on first-name terms with the locals, reports the MailOnline.
Backing the ban was 76-year-old Stephanie Worsley who was most concerned with keeping local families in the area they grew up in. She explained: "It's important for people to be able to buy locally so we can keep local families here. My children have all grown up and moved away. There are families who need to be able to buy their own houses to be able to live in the village. It's been a problem for a few years now. The prices have gone up because people who buy second homes can afford to pay for them."
Retired farm owner Nina Plumbe, 73, claims that her 42-year-old daughter, a mother-of-four, still has to rent because she can't afford the skyrocketing house prices. Nina is a second homeowner herself, and has a six-bed property in nearby Burnham Thorpe, where visitors would only need to stump up a third of the price as in Burnham Market.
Sally Whitworth, who once owned a shop in the town, said that second homeowners should be forced to stump up obscene amounts of cash to be allowed to operate in the town. She said: "We should charge them three times the council tax [...]"
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