Business leaders plead with Chancellor for £20 million

Open letter to the Chancellor from North Yorkshire business and political leaders

SCARBOROUGH is the largest holiday resort on the Yorkshire coast and was Britain’s first seaside resort.

The town will celebrate 400 years as a firm family holiday favourite for millions of people in 2026. The town is the most deprived area of North Yorkshire and parts of it are amongst the most deprived in the country.

However, we have grasped every opportunity and earned the trust of the people and partners here who hold the key to future local growth.

In a public consultation this summer, hundreds of local people and businesses took time to help us develop a ten-year plan based around their key priorities.

Thanks to their input we were at an advanced stage with planning and ready to submit to government ahead of the deadline. These priorities were to unlock the £20 million long-term plan funding for Scarborough promised by the government.

A transformational opportunity for this seaside town with initiatives which would make tangible differences to local lives and opportunity. But just as we were about to submit our plan for August 1, 2024 - government instructed us to stop.

Since then, we have tried repeatedly to engage with government on behalf of the town’s people and businesses to make the point that we are ready to move forward and it is a real concern that with no response we will lose momentum, interest and funding to transform the town.

To be clear, without this vital funding we cannot move forward.

So, on behalf of the town we serve and the people we are passionate about we appeal directly for clarity in your autumn statement on October 30 on Scarborough’s £20 million. We also ask you to work with us directly on our shared mission to drive local growth and to be clear with urgency about how much of this investment we will see and when.

At all times we have followed and met the government guidelines in your submission process and we now ask that the funds be released to us so that Scarborough can drive forward and create economic growth for the good of all

We look forward to hearing from you.

David Kerfoot CBE DL – Chair of Scarborough Town Board

Names of co-signatories to this letter:

Richard Boyes, Managing Director, Boyes and Vice Chair of Scarborough Town Board

Rosemary Du Rose – Chief Executive, Beyond Housing

Adrian Perry – President and Chairman of Scarborough District Civic Society

Cllr Liz Colling – Falsgrave and Stepney Division, Chair Scarborough and Whitby Area Constituency Committee, North Yorkshire Council

Cllr John Ritchie – Woodlands Division, North Yorkshire Council

Cllr Rich Maw – Weaponness and Ramshill Division, North Yorkshire Council

Cllr Tony Randerson – Eastfield Division, North Yorkshire Council

Cllr Eric Broadbent – Northstead Division, North Yorkshire Council

Cllr Derek Bastiman – Scalby and the Coast Division, North Yorkshire Council

Cllr Subash Sharma – Newby Division, North Yorkshire Council

Graeme Young – Chief Executive, Scarborough RUFC

Caroline Routh – Joint Chief Executive, Stephen Joseph Theatre

Richard Askew – Askew Brook Limited

Jo Thompson – Managing Director Spectrum Cleaning Solutions/Director Scarborough Business Ambassadors

Simon Bull - Managing Director, Castle Group Ltd and Chair, Scarborough Business Ambassadors

Aaron Padgham – Director of Saint Cecilia’s Care Group

Mike Padgham – Chairman of the Independent Care Group

Waves Crookes & Laura Robinson –Directors and Co-founders, Seagrown

Jeff Smith – Managing Director, Osprey Plastics

Simon Rhatigan - Managing Director, Bike and Boot

Louise Scott – Director, Castle Employment

Owen Mahoney - Branch Manager, Handelsbanken

Brian Davidson – The Grainery/Falcon Inn

Gavin Hepburn – CEO – Dale Power Solutions

Toby Hyam – Scarborough Town Centre Team and Local Business Owner

Tom Fox – President, Royal British Legion Scarborough Branch, Former Leader Scarborough Borough Council