Burgh Island: Hotel plans 27 staff rooms in accommodation crisis

Eleven rooms are planned to replace tennis courts on the island

An island hotel says a lack of affordable housing has prompted plans to build 27 rooms for staff.

Burgh Island Hotel in south Devon, says it is planning to build the rooms as part of an £8m revamp to make the business financially sustainable.

Owner Giles Fuchs said it was "hard to attract and keep staff due in part to the expensive property prices in the local area".

The "only way to improve this is to build quality staff accommodation".

The island is approached by sea tractor at high tide

Under the plans, the Grade II Art Deco hotel will get 11 rooms for staff in place of tennis courts on the 49-acre (20-hectare) island, along with 16 rooms on the mainland, next to a new cafe building.

The hotel is also planning more guest rooms and an extension of the Pilchard Inn on the island.

The plans will be considered by South Hams District Council at a later date.

How the accommodation on the mainland will look next to the proposed cafe on the left

The average price for properties in the South Hams was £418,521 in December according to the latest Land Registry figures.

Mr Fuchs said: "They [staff] can't afford to rent and they can't afford to buy.

"I would really prefer not to spend millions of pounds on having to build staff accommodation, but we have no other choice if we want to get and retain staff.

"If we are going to make the hotel a sustainable venture, we need to accommodate staff."

BURGH ISLAND

• Inspired the setting for the Agatha Christie novel, the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under the Sun

• The 2002 TV adaptation of Evil Under The Sun used the island as a filming location

• The hotel was visited by playwright Noel Coward in the 1930s

• Several scenes from the BBC's 1987 dramatisation of Christie's story Nemesis were also filmed in the hotel

• At high tide the island is cut off from the mainland and visitors can only get there on a sea tractor

Penny Brown, who recently joined the hotel as managing director, said finding rented accommodation in the area had "not really been a pleasurable experience", and she was still looking.

"Demand far exceeds supply," she said.

"In my recent searches, I found that unless you are looking at the online portals every moment of the day you miss opportunities.

"That is simply because the minute something is out there in the public domain, you can almost guarantee that the agent will have viewings that day, and if you can't make that viewing, well tough and there are maybe 10 other people lined up."

An impression of the staff accommodation on the island from above

She said last week the agents on one property had got down to six applicants and then asked for submissions from each of the prospective tenants "to suggest why they'd be a good tenant".

"Unfortunately I didn't succeed and that's how hard it is becoming," she said.

"I've never come across anything like that before.

"It is quite tough, you know it does get a bit demoralising."

Sixteen staff rooms are planned next to a new cafe building on the mainland

Councillor Judy Pearce, South Hams District Council executive member for housing, said Burgh Island was an "unusual case" because it had "never been easy for staff to live 'nearby' unless they live on the island or just across on the mainland".

"All local hotels, including Burgh Island, are coming up with different strategies to house their staff," she said.

She said the council, which declared a "housing crisis" last year , was "working incredibly hard" on a number of schemes "designed specifically to increase the number of genuinely affordable homes in the area".