This has in the past been a safe Conservative seat. But the party's representatives on Broadland council seem to have stopped attacking their opposition and instead have turned inwards: there are now two Conservative groups on the council, the Broadland Conservative Group (25 councillors) and the Broadland Conservative District Group (7 members). But with just 17 councillors between them the opposition parties hardly pose a threat.
Breckland, the other local authority in the constituency, is equally well-stacked with Conservative members, having watched the gradual defeat of the large number of Labour councillors elected at the Conservatives’ nadir in the mid-1990s.
There are few large employers in the constituency, but the most important of these is frozen food giant Bernard Matthews, based at Great Witchingham, which employs 3,600 people. The local turkey industry, important in northern Norfolk, has a strong relationship with this company. Elsewhere, some investment in regeneration is being made. The Gressenhall Project near Dereham is transforming a former workhouse into a rural life museum.
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