Home workers help business boom in Somerset towns

Mel Rodber said home workers had "carried us through" this year

Business is booming in market towns across Somerset that are benefitting from home workers during the pandemic.

Cafes and shops are seeing people spend money during lunch breaks instead of in the bigger towns and cities where they might usually work.

Large numbers of people in the county previously commuted to Bristol, Bath or Exeter for work.

Langport Area Business Group said the town was "very vibrant", partly from more people staying local.

Mel Rodber stands massaging a slab of sourdough, which she started proving at 04:00 BST.

She bought The Little Bakery in Langport just before the pandemic, in January 2020, having been the baker there for four years.

"We have had quite a lot of people working from home coming down - feeling very isolated - so it's been nice for people to feel they're not on their own," she said.

Fergus and Fiona have been working from home in Langport, with Fiona saying she does not miss her M5 commute

"It's definitely been all the local people who've carried us through this year and we can't thank them enough - they've been amazing."

Finishing off their takeaway lunch on a sunny bench opposite Mel's bakery are Fergus and Fiona.

"We've probably sat on this same bench every day for lunch for the last year," Fergus laughs.

Fiona is a lawyer who usually works in an office in Bristol, while Fergus works in training also based out of Bristol.

New faces

"I'll probably go back to the office two or three days a week when it's all over," Fiona contemplated.

She said she had not missed commuting up and down the M5, and having a better work-life balance.

"We'd normally see the centre of Langport on weekends, not on weekdays, so it seems busier than I imagined.

"I don't know if it was always like that or if it's a Covid thing," added Fergus.

The Black Sheep Butchers had hour-and-a-half-long queues at the start of the first lockdown

Steve White is the owner of Black Sheep Butchers, which is next to Langport's free car park.

Things have calmed down for him since the hour-and-a-half-long queues he had at the start of the first lockdown in 2020, but he is still seeing new faces, particularly in the week.

"There have been a lot of people that are coming out at lunchtime, working from home, that aren't normally in the town," said Steve.

"Also, the car park is quieter where there's not people parking here and getting on the bus to go to Taunton to work," he adds.

Over at The Bridge Canteen, owner Claire Valentine says her business, like many others, had to close to customers inside and turned to takeaways during the lockdowns.

Claire Valentine of the The Bridge Canteen says takeaways for home workers are still proving popular

"We could cater for people coming in to grab something for lunch and go home again, and that seems to have continued now, even though people are able to eat in as well.

"We have a lot of people who just grab stuff and whizz back to work at home. They say they're glad to speak to somebody who's not to do with work, and just have a change of environment."

And it's not just the pretty town's food shops that are benefitting.

Great Bow Wharf is an enterprise centre with hotdesks and small offices for hire next to the River Parrett.

The business said it had had more interest than ever during the pandemic and is now full, including home workers operating out of the building's cafe, just to get a change of scene.

Among its clients are architects, a PR agency, people working in IT and a London-based law firm that has bought up a number of desks for their staff who live in Somerset.