Left Hand Page: The Rotunda museum was given a £4.4m makeover; Top: Scarborough’s inner harbour;
Above: Wood End Creative Workplace has 38 offices, 2,000sq ft of artist studio space and cost £4.8m
It is now four years from the start of the Waking
Sleeping Beauty project and the statistics show
some startling changes in Scarborough. In 2002,
unemployment in Scarborough was twice the North
Yorkshire average and more than a third of residents
were living in neighbourhoods among the 20 percent
most deprived in the country.
During summer Scarborough was like any other seaside
resort – a bustling high street, busy shops and thriving
businesses. The winter was a total contrast – shops closed,
unemployment rose and the streets emptied.
Today it is a different story – every £1 invested by the
public sector in Scarborough has attracted £10 of private
sector investment, while the digital and creative industries
now account for 19 percent of Scarborough’s economy.
The high street is showing signs of success too – between
April 2008 and March 2009 the number of people in the
town centre rose by 0.8 percent to 5,590,649.
Scarborough’s redevelopment has been much needed
but it still has a long way to go, particularly in the face
of a recession. In the last year, the average house price
in Scarborough dropped by 15.6 percent – the fourth
biggest decrease out of 10 neighbouring authorities.
According to home.co.uk the average asking price for
a semi-detached house in the town has dropped from
£185,031 to £165,161 since 2006, with the same type of
house listed for sale 50 percent longer than a year ago.
“The recession has affected our plans – only 25 percent
of Scarborough Business Park is rented,” says David
Kelly, Economic Development Manager with Scarborough
Council. “However, a recent survey of the top 50
businesses in Scarborough found that 40 percent of them
plan to increase their staff in the next year and thanks
to the weak pound, UK holidays are on the increase –
something our town will benefit from.”
SCARBOROUGH
Scarborough’s vision is part of a wider aim to regenerate
the whole of the North Yorkshire coast – a project that
is estimated to take 15 years. With this in mind, what
Scarborough have achieved so far is rather impressive.
According to Nick Fenwick of Scarborough estate
agents, Colin Ellis, despite the effects of the recession,
the town still has a lot of potential. “There is definitely
more activity,” he said. “However prices are still very
competitive, vendors have to be realistic. We are still
going through a difficult period but there are early signs
that it is not as bad as it was. There have been more
transactions, which is encouraging.”
Scarborough’s efforts were recognised last year when it
was named the enterprise capital of the UK and again this
year when the town won the European leg of the competition.
The nationwide competition, which is run by Make Your Mark
on behalf of the Department for Business and Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform (BERR), is part of a government initiative to
recognise places that have created new jobs, forged links in
the community and improved the local business climate.
It’s a good recognition and well deserved award, which
benefits the residents and highlights how far Scarborough
has come in such a short period of time. “Scarborough
is a town with enterprise in its blood,” said Enterprising
Britain judge and TV personality, Peter Jones. “The Waking
Sleeping Beauty name is very apt: this is a town that has
learnt to tap into it latent entrepreneurial talent and harness
it with tremendous results.”
Scarborough has been successful so far in its attempts
to revive itself but it still has a long way to go – something
made particularly challenging by such as unstable market.
If the town is to achieve its long term goal of becoming a
business and tourism hub and to weather the recession,
Scarborough and its residents will have to maintain their
entrepreneurial spirit for a good deal longer.
www.estatesreview.com 57
REGENERATION
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