The Scarborough News reported that the combined authority cabinet meets in Scarborough today to vote on £7m for the vacant Brunswick Centre in YO11 1, where Land Registry records put the median price paid at £125,000 across 116 sales in the year to August 2026.
Land Registry records show 116 homes sold in postcode YO11 1 during the 12 months to August 2026 at a median price paid of £125,000, against a median of £200,000 on about 75,900 sales in Yorkshire and The Humber over the same period.
The Brunswick Shopping Centre closed in 2025, and council reports cited in coverage judge large town-centre schemes unviable without public intervention. An initial £1m grant would support pre-construction work and £6m would be ringfenced for construction, as the first major scheme in Scarborough’s Mayoral Development Zone within the Station to Shore programme.
North Yorkshire Council has already backed £10.5m of grant funding and an £8m loan towards cinema, leisure, food and drink and retail.
Below Yorkshire and The Humber
YO11 1’s median sits more than a third below the £200,000 median recorded across about 75,900 sales in Yorkshire and The Humber in the same 12 months to August 2026.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
England recorded a median of £285,000 on 671,521 sales in the same period. North Yorkshire posted £262,500 on 9,211 sales.
Flats in YO11 1 rose
Flats in YO11 1 rose from a median of £80,000 on 29 sales in calendar 2023 to £98,000 on 39 sales in calendar 2024, on town-centre medians resting on small counts.
Flats across YO11 and YO12 fell from a median of £120,000 on 320 sales to £114,950 on 297 sales over the same two years.
New-build homes made up about 4 per cent of the 1,221 sales in YO11 and YO12 in the 12 months to August 2026, against about 2 per cent across England’s 671,521 sales in that period.
The first £1m may not return
A report estimates 414 direct jobs and about 850,000 visits a year from the scheme.
It warns the initial £1m grant could be irrecoverable if work stops after pre-construction.
North Yorkshire Council has confirmed the previous planning permission lapsed, so a new application is required before building starts.
David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, told the BBC that “High streets and town centres need our backing, not quick fixes.”
Naomi Clayton, a former Brunswick Shopping Centre worker, told the BBC: “There will be job opportunities out there for a lot of people that struggle with us being a seaside town.”
If the £7m is approved, it would sit in a wider £18.5m public-sector support package for the project.
A business case, then a new application
Cabinet approval today would allow the project to move to a full business case before the ringfenced £6m is released, with an updated planning application to be submitted ahead of construction.
The same meeting was also due to consider a recommended £1m grant for streetscape and active travel improvements along Westborough and Vernon Road.
No later decision date was given in the reports cited ahead of the vote.