The 100 or so beach hut owners at the Walings, Frinton-on-Sea, have seen the value of their huts increase in the last two or so years from £20,000 in the depths of the last recession to £30,000 today. That equates to a £1 million windfall for a few lucky people in a district of nearly 150,000 residents. 

 

“Good for them”, you might think, but what you may not know is that, two years ago, Tendring Council REDUCED their annual rental charge to those 100 owners by £140 (to just over £387 a year for roughly 40 Tendring residents and £711 for about 60 non-residents) at a cost of about £14,000 a year. 

 

What makes matters worse is that local taxpayers are still liable for repairs to and eventual replacement of the wooden staging underneath the huts, which has an estimated life span of 20 – 25 years. Taking that cost into account, it means that Tendring ratepayers get little more than 1.25% a year for one of the Council’s most valuable sites. Looking at it another way, 100 lucky beach hut owners are making a lot of money at council taxpayers’ expense. 

 

As a crude comparison, TDC could sell those sites and invest the proceeds in UK Government bonds for the same period, earning 3% even with interest rates at record lows. 

 

In cash terms, that means a minimum return of £75,000 a year as opposed to just over £30,000.* 

 

When you consider that (this time last year) Tendring Council INCREASED sports pitch charges for thousands of people across the District by 44% in a failed effort to gain a derisory £15,000 (which backfired when clubs either moved elsewhere or folded), the Government’s motto of “we are all in this together” clearly does not ring true here in North East Essex. 

 

*These calculations take into account the impact of VAT, repair costs and financing charges and are based on the underlying structure, not the beach huts themselves (which have an intrinsic value of no more than £5,000).