Case Studies

Whitby Business Park

Business Cases / Public Sector Funding
Levelling Up – Towns Fund / Future High Streets / Shared Prosperity Fund
Site Disposal / Developer Selection
Town Centre Regeneration and Masterplanning

Scarborough Borough Council

Business Case

Acting on behalf of Scarborough Borough Council AspinallVerdi was retained to provide development consultancy and public sector funding advice to ‘unlock’ infrastructure investment to enable the expansion of the business park. The business park is the principal employment site within Whitby which as a town is constrained by the North Sea to the east and the North Yorkshire Moors National Park to the west. The business park is the only site within the town with any scope to expand to provide future employment land. The expansion is required in order to respond to employment land needs arising from the proposed off-shore wind farm development at Dogger Bank and the Sirius potash mine in North Yorkshire.

Key Actions

AspinallVerdi provided initial advice in respect of a Regional Growth Fund bid and a business plan for ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). This involved establishing a detailed month-by-month cashflow for the project to establish the ‘viability gap’. We led consultation events with key landowners to establish a dialogue and delivery mechanism. Subsequently we introduced high value private sector end-users to the site which were able to ‘pump-prime’ the first phase of infrastructure supported by a Growing Places Fund loan from the North Yorkshire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership).

Outcome

AspinallVerdi has led tripartite negotiations between the Landowner, the Council and the occupier(s) to agree a Land Access Agreement. This will be a precedent agreement to enable the Council to secure a contribution (33%) of the development value of each future plot towards the cost of the Growing Places Fund loan.

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Whitby Business Park