Burnham Market council wants donations from holiday-let homes

Burnham Market council wants holiday landlords to donate to coffers

A Norfolk village popular with tourists is set to ask owners of holiday lets to make a donation to council coffers.

The parish council in Burnham Market is set to write to about 200 people renting out furnished holiday homes to ask them to contribute.

Council chairman Dennis Clark said it was likely the council would ask for about £100.

"At the moment they benefit from parish council services but pay nothing," he said.

Burnham Market council's move comes as other local authorities plan to double council tax bills for second home owners, in the wake of a new law.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which came into force in October, gave "billing authorities" the discretion to charge a "100% premium" on second homes from April 2025.

But Mr Clark told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that owners of furnished holiday lets who, unlike second home owners did not have to pay council tax on the properties they rent out, were a better target.

Burnham Market Parish Council chairman Dennis Clark said second home owners were the wrong target

"People who own second homes not only bring money to the area, but they also pay council tax," said Mr Clark, 77, a retired oil and gas industry worker originally from Hartlepool, County Durham.

"People who own furnished holiday lets currently only have to pay business rates.

"Some of that council tax comes back to the parish council - business tax doesn't."

"The parish council is planning to write to the owners of furnished holiday lets in the area - I think there are about 200 - and ask them for a contribution.

"Not a vast amount, probably around £100.

"If people want street lights and the greens cut and so on, it's only fair."

Chelsea-on-Sea nickname

In 2023, villagers in Burnham Market, voted, in a referendum, to oppose more second and holiday homes being built.

They said new builds and homes which came up for sale should not be allowed to be second or holiday homes.

The area has been nicknamed Chelsea-on-Sea in some quarters because of the high number of properties owned by Londoners.

"It's a name the media use but I don't like it and find it irritating," added Mr Clark.

"It makes it sound as if we somehow tied to London and that everyone here is a millionaire.

"That certainly isn't true."