Latest news with #Wymondham
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The charming corner of Norfolk rejecting the second homes tax
Norfolk is known for its quaint villages, beautiful beaches – and for being an epicentre of the backlash against second home owners. Much of this ire is focused in a quiet corner of North Norfolk, in the village of Burnham Market, in an area widely known as Chelsea-on-Sea. Here, almost 10pc of properties are second homes. In 2023, villagers voted to stop properties from being turned into holiday homes through the planning system, and then the council hit owners with a 100pc tax surcharge. Almost all of Norfolk penalises second home owners with higher council tax – except for one area which, by contrast, greets them with open arms. Welcome to Wymondham, in the heart of South Norfolk. It is far less flashy than its northerly counterparts. Its medieval streets are littered with thatched cottages, timber-framed properties and a historic abbey. The high street is packed with independent shops, and the cobbled market cross hosts a farmer's market every Friday. There is the annual Wymondham duck race, when hundreds of rubber ducks are launched down the river on May Day. Wymondham in Bloom transforms the high street during the summer months. It is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone – the locals can point out the Airbnb and second home hotspots. Yet they are welcoming of these visitors, as the high street cries out for more business. 'We need second home owners,' says Nicky O'Grady, a Wymondham local and owner of the Enchanted Willow flower shop. 'We need the footfall, and want the town to become more discovered. Second home owners can often afford to spend money and buy local produce. You can't just rely on locals for business.' 'Taxation for taxation's sake' While its neighbours have doubled tax on second homes, South Norfolk Council chose not to, deciding that it would have been 'taxation for taxation's sake'. The 100pc council tax premium on second homes was introduced by 230 councils across the country on April 1. It means a second home owner in Wymondham will pay £2,258 for a Band D property in council tax. Across the border in Great Yarmouth or North Norfolk, the same second home would attract a bill of more than £4,000. There are 667 second homes in the district, which is dwarfed in comparison to the 5,973 in North Norfolk. Yet local authorities with as few as six second homes – including Sandwell Borough Council in the West Midlands – have introduced the levy. The town hall resisted this attack on second home owners, saying it didn't believe in 'taxation for taxation's sake'. So the area remains an attractive second home destination, with the Norfolk Broads National Park nearby. Kyrena O'Brien, of local estate agency, TW Gaze, said the market in Wymondham is 'really active at the moment', with lots of interest from buyers. 'Wymondham is the most sought-after area in South Norfolk, it's getting more and more popular. The town is very welcoming of Airbnbs and short-term lets. It's getting busier, and that's a good thing.' She adds: 'This is the perfect place if you can't afford to be right on the sea, but you can get there quickly. It's also really easy to get to London via the A11 and has good train lines from Norwich, so it's a good place for a second home.' It's still an affordable place to buy, with median house prices just above the national average, at £300,000. 'We need the footfall' As is the case in so many small towns, its high street has struggled. Wymondham residents, Karen and Michael Graham, both 64, have seen an increasing number of businesses shut up shop over the years. 'The high street used to have wonderful butchers and fishmongers, etc,' says Karen. 'Second homes mean tourists are coming in, which helps the economy. We need the footfall.' Michael says that instead of buying in Chelsea-on-Sea, second home owners should set their sights further south. 'There are lots of places here that are extremely nice.' Their sentiment is echoed by local businesses. O'Grady, who runs the flower shop, says the town is 'lovely, but undiscovered', and adds that she can't 'just rely on locals for business'. 'We love tourism here. We need the second home owners. We want the town to become more discovered. I worry about the high street,' she added. Her shop, which is one of its oldest buildings, recently received royal approval when Princess Ann took a bunch of the Enchanted Willow's flowers on a visit to the local hospital. A change is coming The South Norfolk council area stretches from Diss in the south to the outskirts of Norwich, and creeps east towards the coast, bordering Great Yarmouth. As local government funding wanes, this second home tax haven may cease to exist next year. Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget hiked employer National Insurance contributions, indirectly costing councils an extra £1.13bn this year. And the spending review fell 'well short of filling the projected £2.2bn funding gap faced by county and unitary councils next year', the County Councils Network said. South Norfolk District Council has suggested that it may have to bring in the levy because of a lack of government support. Daniel Elmer, the council leader, said: 'South Norfolk Council took the decision not to increase council tax on second homes this year as we do not believe in taxation simply for taxation's sake. 'Unfortunately, due to the reduced support from central government and the current financial situation, we have had to agree to introduce the increase from next year so that we can use the added revenue to help reduce the overall tax burden for our residents.' This move may not be wholly supported by Wymondham's locals, however. Buster Smith, South Norfolk born-and-bred, says: 'There is nothing in Wymondham now. It's just charity shops. We need people here!'
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Jarrolds boss assures staff that Cromer store is not closing
Staff at a long-established department store outlet have been assured that another shop closure is not being is closing the book department of its four-floor store in Norwich, citing the struggle to compete with national and online Cromer store primarily sells books, however Tim Shattock, the firm's managing director for trading, insisted the coastal shop was "not at risk".It follows the closure of its shop in Wymondham last September - and a move to cut the hours of around 70 staff earlier this year. Speaking to BBC Radio Norfolk, Mr Shattock said: "I think it comes down to how you work with scale. "We obviously have a large store with large operating costs in Norwich and we also have a multi-department offer."If you're dedicated to books and you're operating either as a large bookseller - as a Waterstones where you've got scale to combat some of the price and availability - or if that's actually the main area of focus, like some of the excellent independent book shops."That's where Cromer exists for us. It leads with books and has a very good book business. It has a very good customer base, with not huge amounts of competition, like Norwich." 'Difficult decision' The book department of the Norwich store is set to close at the end of August after a sale of existing Shattock did not confirm if any staff would be made redundant but said: "With any business change we have to prioritise any colleagues affected and I know the team at Jarrolds are working with them to manage that."Jarrolds appears to be in a healthy position financially, according to its most recent annual accounts to the end of January dipped very slightly to £31.8m but a £6m profit represented a 19.1% gross profit margin. The average number of employees also fell very slightly to 398 from 419 the previous the firm's long history as a publisher and a book seller, Mr Shattock admitted the department had faced challenges since the rise of online retailers at the turn of the millennium."We're very proud of our history as a bookseller in Norwich and books as a whole in the company, we're also very thankful to our loyal customers who have been on the journey with us," he said."So I understand that this decision is a difficult one and tricky for some customers to understand."In the department store we operate in a number of different categories and whilst we're seeing some really good growth in some and some really strong demand, this [books] has been a challenging market for us for a number of years."We've managed to nurture the department over the last two decades and managed that decline, it's got to the point where we need to think about the future and make a difficult decision on our portfolio."Mr Shattock said growth could be found in innovative areas, such as the food hall and beauty retreat rooms."We're seeing that innovation in other categories that we're finding very difficult to replicate in books," he said. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
13-06-2025
- BBC News
Wymondham subway work will halt train services and traffic
A road will be closed for a month and trains temporarily replaced by buses when work begins on a subway for pedestrians and cyclists underneath a railway new layout beside a railway bridge in Wymondham, Norfolk, aims to improve access to the town centre and forms part of a planned housing Road will be closed from 30 June until 27 July, while rail services on the Norwich to Ely line will be affected for three days from 5 July, including throughout Monday, 7 July."We're really sorry that passengers will face disruption, including on a working day, but it's fundamental to allow this scheme to move forward," a spokesman for Network Rail said. It said the "key phase" of construction at the beginning of July involved removing the railway tracks and excavating the earth underneath. A crane would then lift in several concrete subway sections, each of which would weigh about 28 tonnes, it added. During this time, trains cannot run on the Greater Anglia route between Norwich and Cambridge and Stansted Airport, as well as the East Midlands Railway route between Norwich and Nottingham and Liverpool Lime timetable changes have been put in place on the different routes across the three days, with passengers advised to check before they travel. The subway, constructed by housing developers Taylor Wimpey and Vistry, is expected to open in the autumn of 2026. Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Neil Featherby: The power of pacing ahead of Wymondham 20
'Pace makes for the perfect race' which I constantly hammer home to any athlete or distance runner I have ever advised. Mark Armstrong demonstrated this in last weekend's Barcelona Marathon and no, I don't advise Mark, but he has most certainly learnt over the years just how important it is to know exactly where you are at with your fitness and ability once you toe the start line of a marathon. So before I go any further, it really is a big well done to him and I am sure he will continue to improve for the foreseeable future. In 1989, I won the very first Wymondham 20-mile road race which of course takes place this coming weekend. I am sure many will be using this as a tester prior to an April marathon. However, and at the same time, if this is the case it is so important not to run yourself into the ground whereby it can then affect training during those final few weeks leading up to marathon day. Going back to that very first Wymondham 20, which I won in a time of 1:49:35, and is still a race record to this day albeit being equalled during the 1990s by Anthony Pooley from Bury St Edmunds Pacers, I have a feeling that a new name will be added as the race record holder after this Sunday's race. When I stood on the start line just outside of Wymondham College with a few hundred others, it was one of those days when I was just not as motivated as I should have been. It had had been raining quite hard prior to the start with several big puddles out on the wet roads but I liked running in the rain so it wasn't that. For whatever reason I just didn't feel fired up as you should be for a race. I had finished third in the Malta marathon just a few weeks before which may have had something to do with it and I had spent what had been Christmas and the first few weeks of January staying in hospital with my young son Greg after he had broken his femur on Christmas Eve. Maybe this and the effort of the Malta marathon had just come to a head and I was mentally stale. It was also a two-lap course, so heading out for the second time around was just a case of keep on running and then when I got to the 19 mile marker I looked at my watch and saw that unless I gave it my all during the last mile I wasn't going to go under 1 hour 50 mins. It was a bit like a kick up the back side for which I ran that last mile in five minutes flat which was faster than any of the previous 19. It also proved just how much our minds dictate towards our feelings when it comes to having the drive or not having it. Callum Bowen Jones, who I coach, will be running in this Sunday's race and for the first time over the 20 mile distance. Up to now he has not raced beyond a half marathon. I also have a couple of other guys running it for which it will also be a first time for one of them. I am forever winding Callum up telling him that he's not as good as I was and needless to say I am only joking, but if all goes to plan he for one should break what has been a race record which has stood for far too long. For all those running and racing this weekend, I hope you have a good one. Oh and stay motivated!
