Up to half the properties in some Norfolk villages are now second homes, with many locals priced out of their communities as a consequence. CHRIS BISHOP considers how to tackle this thorny issue, and the innovative approach now being taken in some areas
It was a familiar tale in rural Norfolk when they closed the village school in Sedgeford, near Hunstanton.
Pupil numbers had fallen by half in the space of a year, leaving just 13 when its future went out to consultation in the summer of 2020.
With no new admissions expected for the next year, it was literally running out of children. There was little or no likelihood of things changing, according to the county council.
Existing pupils were transferred to schools at Hunstanton or Heacham that September. The following year, the school site went up for sale and is now awaiting redevelopment.
You can't begrudge anyone wanting to come to spend the weekend in a pretty chalk and carrstone cottage, with a gastro pub a stone's throw away - or anyone who wants to own one for an investment or retirement nest egg.
But the pub's now just about all that's left, in a village which once boasted four shops, including a greengrocer's and a bakery.
The last to go was the Post Office, on Cole Green, which was converted into a house after it closed in 2006 and is now a holiday let which sleeps six.
One well-placed villager said something like 40pc of properties in and around the community were now holiday lets or second homes.
The school ran out of children, because local people in their 20s and 30s could no longer afford to buy a property in Sedgeford, where a two-bed cottage is currently on the market for £325,000.
North Norfolk now has one of the highest proportions of second homes outside London.
In Salthouse, 79 out of the village’s 157 homes - 50.3pc - are second homes or holiday homes. In nearby Morston, the figure is 47.7pc and in Blakeney, 43.3pc.
The few people who now grow up in these villages cannot afford to live in them.
It is growing social problem seen in popular rural areas across the country and one that ministers seem to want to address. But how?
The government has closed a loophole which some used to duck paying the full council tax on second homes - or even claim rate relief by registering them as a business.
But while that means those who own homes in a community will al least be paying towards the upkeep of things like schools, policing and getting the bins emptied, it does not address the affordability issue.
Not surprisingly, there have been calls for Norfolk councils to do as they do in St Ives in Cornwall - where the authorities now insist that new properties have a covenant which ensures they go to local people as their main residence.
It all sounds fine in theory, but when the Cornish council tweaked the rules, it found the change had unintended consequences.
Second-homers and holiday let investors simply turned to the market for established properties, sending prices even higher.
But the price of new-builds fell, making developers reluctant to dip their toe in the water.
The London School of Economics said the ban had also damaged the local construction and tourism industries.
A blanket ban would probably not work in Norfolk for the same reasons - and have the same fall-out.
Some say there should be a second homes tax to pay for new properties, but councils do not currently have the powers to impose the levy.
Housing secretary Michael Gove is said to be favourable towards the idea. Some believe it would also help slow down the boom in holiday lets by making them less attractive as an investment.
Whichever way the wind ends up blowing policy-wise, sunny weather will bring holidaymakers and second-homers flocking to the coast this weekend.
They'll bring a welcome boost for the tourist trade, its biggest industry. Packed beaches mean money in the bank for businesses which have somehow clung on through Covid and wages for their staff.
Many would be out of a job were it not for visitors.
Back in Sedgeford, there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon regarding the old village school, as the first weekenders punch in the key safe numbers of their holiday lets.
Villagers were told on Thursday that while the building will be redeveloped, it is not being placed on the open market. It could instead be turned into homes for local people.
Minutes of a parish council meeting posted on the village notice board opposite the King William pub said it had been told the building has not yet been signed off for sale by the Department for Education.
When it has been, it will not be offered for sale where second home owners or holiday cottage landlords can snap it up.
Instead, the county council hopes to work with its property arm Repton Homes and a developer to "evaluate the viability of developing sympathetic local homes for rental or sale or a combination of the two".
A resident management company is also being mooted, which would enable "restrictive covenants" to be applied to the properties.
So could the most recent casualty of the growing tide of holiday lets and second homes along the coast help stem the flow, at least for now, for Sedgeford?
Work on a similar development is about to get under way on the former First School site in Hunstanton.
Some 24 new homes on the Weybourne Road in Sheringham are also being earmarked for locals.
Could similar bespoke schemes be the answer - perhaps funded by an additional levy on second homes to claw in the cash to pay for new housing?
Sedgeford still digging into its past
It may seem like just another pretty village as you drive through on the Heacham to Docking Road, but one of Sedgeford's attractions is that it is steeped in history.
Over the last 25 years SHARP - the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project - has unearthed incredible finds from fields across the valley from the village.
They include a hoard of Iron Age gold coins hidden in a cow horn, which were discovered in 2003.
Almost 300 skeletons have been found on a Romano-British burial site which is believed to have been in use between 650 and 850AD.
Remains of a large malting complex dating back to Anglo Saxon times have also been found in the valley, served by extensive man-made watercourses.
The remains will form the centrepiece of this summer's dig, which gets under way on June 26.
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