‘We can't sell our £400k Dorset beach huts – and it's the council's fault'
The owners of Britain's most expensive beach huts have blamed the council for making the properties less desirable to potential buyers.
Eight wooden huts with a combined value of £3.8 million have gone up for sale at Mudeford Spit in Christchurch Harbour, Dorset. The huts range in price from £395,000 to £439,000 – more than the average UK house price.
The properties often sell extremely quickly because of their exclusive location and sea views. Last year, one sold for £485,000 in less than 24 hours.
The unusually high number currently on the market has prompted concerns that the tide may be turning on a once lucrative market.
Financially-struggling Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council (BCP) has been accused of using beach hut owners as 'cash cows'.
The annual hut licence fee has increased by 30 per cent in the past two years to £3,240, with another 5 per cent rise planned for next year. This is in addition to the £23,100 transfer fee.
Stephen Bath, who owns one of the 346 huts at Mudeford, said: 'The council uses the beach huts as a cash cow because they are in dire financial circumstances.
'I think that's what's caused people to try to sell up, hereditary owners who can't afford the rent hikes.
'The council are getting cheeky – they don't care who's paying the rent. Plus people who have bought more recently, out of towners, are also thinking it is getting ridiculous. It costs more to stay at the beach than it would to stay at somewhere like Claridge's.'
Earlier this month, BCP warned it would be forced to issue a section 114 notice, a formal declaration of effective bankruptcy, without more direction from the Government on how to tackle the severe cash flow crisis associated with its growing special educational needs and disability deficit.
Richard Herrett, the council's portfolio holder for leisure and destination, said the rental income for its beach huts enable it to reinvest in 'crucial front-line services that residents rely on each day – such as adult social care and children's services'.
The council said the five-year pricing structure, introduced in 2022, simplified the service 'allowing everyone to know the annual cost of beach huts until 2027/28'.
He added: 'Despite increasing financial constraints which many local authorities face, as a result of national pressures, the council has remained committed to that transparent pricing strategy and will do so into the future.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Shiploads of cars ready to set sail for US from UK as trade deal kicks in
Shiploads of Minis, Aston Martins and Range Rovers will set sail for the US on Monday as the UK-US trade deal kicks in, but British farmers say they have been used as collateral to save the car industry. Auto shipments across the Atlantic were down more than half in May after Donald Trump's imposition of a 25% tariff on 3 April on top of an existing 2.5% levy. However, as of one minute past midnight US time on Monday – 5am in the UK – that has been reduced to 10% for cars, and UK manufacturers expect pent-up demand to be unleashed. Aston Martin's chief executive, Adrian Hallmark, said the luxury carmaker had stopped shipping between April and June, something he said had been 'not catastrophic, but slightly uncomfortable'. The outline of the trade deal was agreed between Trump and Keir Starmer in early May, the first such bilateral pact to mitigate the president's import taxes. However, delays in agreeing the fine print meant the higher tariff had continued to apply, pushing the cost of British cars up by more than a quarter for US importers. Hallmark told a British car industry conference last week that he was 'planning to invoice three months' worth of sales in a 24-hour period', with stocks in the US down by 50% due to the pause. Aston Martin exports 90% of its cars, but its customers are wealthy and were willing to wait. 'The demand has been strong and will be in good shape when we start to invoice cars like fury on Monday next week,' he said. On the eve of the trade deal coming into force, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, received reassurances from the sportscar maker Lotus that it had no plans to close its UK factory, in Hethel, Norfolk. Reynolds contacted Lotus bosses after it emerged that the carmaker was considering shifting production to the US – a move that would jeopardise 1,300 jobs. A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said Reynolds met Lotus and its owner, Geely, on Sunday to clarify the company's situation, and 'was reassured by management that they are committed to their UK operations and have no plans to close their Hethel plant'. A decision to relocate manufacturing abroad by a prestige brand such as Lotus would be embarrassing for the UK government. Labour's industrial strategy, published last week, singled out automotive production as among the strategic sectors it wants to support. The car industry welcomed the US-UK trade deal when it was struck, with it preventing job losses at JLR, the maker of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Range Rovers are particularly popular in the US. However, the lower 10% duty only applies to a quota of 100,000 cars a year – slightly below last year's export numbers – leaving little room for growth. JLR alone exported 84,000 cars in the year up to April 2025. The initial trade deal also included a promise of zero tariffs on steel but this has been held up by negotiations over the origin of some raw materials for smelting, particularly at Tata's plant at Port Talbot in south Wales. Concessions were won with new tariff-free quotas for British and US beef in each other's markets, as well the controversial removal of a 19% tariff on American ethanol imports, which the UK industry says leaves biofuel plants facing closure. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The president of the National Farmers' Union, Tom Bradshaw, said the government must stop using agriculture as a bargaining chip in talks and urged Starmer to take the sector off the table in the talks on steel and remove the 10% baseline tariff Trump has applied to all imports. 'Agriculture has borne the responsibility of removing tariffs for other sectors. At some point they've got to stop relying on agriculture to take the burden,' Bradshaw said. 'Agriculture has nothing left to give.' On the upside for farmers, they can now sell 13,000 tonnes of British beef to the US, but again there is a catch. They will not be able to sell until January next year because beef is part of a wider tariff deal with other countries, and this year's quota has already been filled by Brazilians who stockpile beef in storage near the Mexican border. The UK steel industry has at least won a temporary exemption from the 50% tariff imposed by Trump at the start of this month until 9 July, but it still faces a 25% tariff on exports. It is waiting anxiously for delivery of the promised zero rate tariff. 'Time is running out to secure a UK-US steel deal and remove damaging tariffs,' said Gareth Stace, the director general of UK Steel. 'Every day of delay costs our steelmakers dearly. Contracts are being lost, investment decisions remain on hold, and uncertainty is paralysing business decisions. We urgently need a swift, positive resolution to these talks to protect jobs, unlock growth, and restore confidence in the sector.' Yet even in a zero-tariff deal, Port Talbot may still face issues. The UK operations of the Indian conglomerate are relying on imports of steel melted and poured in its sister plants in India and the Netherlands while they move from a polluting blast furnace to the greener electric arc furnace to smelt steel. However, UK Steel is hoping there can be an exception to the tariffs agreed for the Welsh operation along with the five other plants in the UK. UK trade officials are understood to be optimistic they can secure such an exemption.
Telegraph
32 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Cafe named after Princess Diana ‘employing illegal migrants'
A café named after Diana, Princess of Wales, could lose its licence for employing migrants illegally. The royal was a regular guest at Café Diana in Notting Hill Gate after it opened in 1989 close to Kensington Palace. She reportedly took Prince William and Prince Harry for breakfast. The Home Office has applied for the café's licence to be revoked after discovering seven staff members without the correct documentation from Egypt, Iran and Albania during four inspections between September 2019 and May 2025. Abdul-Basit Daoud, the venue's designated premises superviser, recalled that Diana first visited the café days after it opened. He said: 'She started coming more often, bringing the kids here sometimes for breakfast. The kids used to take breakfast, like English breakfast. 'Herself, she used to have cappuccino, cake, some croissants, something like this. But she sometimes had English breakfast too.' The café is now a popular tourist destination with photographs of the princess on the walls, including one that Diana gave as a gift. Documents submitted to the council by the Home Office and seen by The Telegraph showed that one employee was paid £40 for an eight-hour shift, equivalent to £5 an hour, while one chef who arrived in the UK on a business visa that ran out in 2015 said he was 'paid in food'. The report also revealed that one illegal worker had been employed at the premises for more than two years. The Home Office report said: 'This prolonged period of illegal employment is significant as it indicates a persistent undermining of the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objective.' The cafe was fined £10,500 in February 2020 for hiring illegal workers and another £135,000 in December 2024 for the same offence. On May 9, 45 tubs of illegal shisha tobacco were seized, and council Trading Standards Officials found smoking had taken place in smoke-free areas. The Home Office report added: 'It is clear to see that the premises licence holder/DPS, along with management, has failed to conduct mandatory employment checks in line with legal obligations to prevent illegal working. 'It is an offence to work when a person is disqualified to do so, and such an offence can only be committed with the co-operation of a premises licence holder or its agents. The management could have eradicated any doubt concerning right-to-work by the simple task of acquiring a share code from potential employees.' The Metropolitan Police asked the council 'to be mindful' in their decision, adding: 'To allow them the benefit of a premises licence would undermine the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objective.' Mr Daoud's company, Corporate Meeting and Event Services Ltd, ran the café but were evicted by SSW6 Holding Ltd which holds the licence. Mr Daoud's company was liquidated in June. Mr Daoud admitted recruiting staff from overseas but said all new hires were required to fill out a starter checklist and all underwent right-to-work checks. Paid with food He also said staff were verbally told which days to work and are paid in cash 'with some receiving free food in return for working at the premises'. Lawyers for SSW6 Holding Ltd said his client undertook 'swift and decisive action' by evicting the current tenants after becoming aware of the issues and suggested suspending the licence for three months. The company proposed hiring door security, carrying out regular immigration checks, and improving CCTV and training for staff. A legal letter read: 'We respectfully suggest that a suspension of the premises licence for a period of three months would represent an appropriate and proportionate response.'
Telegraph
32 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Entry-level jobs in free-fall after launch of ChatGPT
Entry-level jobs are in free-fall as the rise of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT causes low-paying and graduate roles to disappear. Recently-released data shows that the number of entry-level roles being advertised has fallen by a third since the launch of OpenAI's chatbot in November 2022. According to figures from online jobs board Adzuna, there were 214,934 entry-level jobs on offer in May this year, down by 32pc from just three years ago. This decline is outpacing the number of overall vacancy numbers, which have fallen from 1,091,909 to 858,465, or 21pc, over the same period. It comes after The Telegraph reported earlier this month that graduate hiring in the City had also dropped off dramatically since the launch of ChatGPT. This was particularly relevant in the professional services sector, where AI is threatening to automate more mundane tasks carried out by junior accountants and consultants.
