Council Leader Rules Out Buying Scarborough's Grand Hotel

Sunday, 20 July 2025 06:00

By Anttoni James Numminen, Local Democracy Reporter

The leader of North Yorkshire Council has said the authority will not back a ‘mad idea’ of purchasing Scarborough’s Grand Hotel.

Coun Carl Les, the leader of North Yorkshire Council (NYC), has said he will not back one of his Conservative colleague’s previous proposals to buy the Grand Hotel in Scarborough.

The issue resurfaced at a full meeting of the authority on July 16, after the leader was quizzed about the removal of Coun Keane Duncan, one of NYC’s youngest councillors, from its executive committee.

Last month, the 30-year-old Coun Duncan, a former mayoral candidate, resigned from the role of executive member for highways and transport after being asked to make way for fresh talent.

During his bid to be elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire last year, Coun Duncan said that if successful, he would buy Scarborough’s landmark Victorian hotel using a compulsory purchase order if necessary.

Speaking at the full meeting this week, Coun Steve Shaw-Wright, leader of the Labour group, said:

“I would just like clarification that the council has no intention whatsoever of purchasing the Grand Hotel in Scarborough?”

Coun Les, boss of the Conservative-led authority, said he sold his family hotel business 12 years ago and recalled:

“By God, I do miss it”.

However, he estimated that purchasing and refurbishing the hotel could cost £1bn. North Yorkshire Council is forecasting an annual deficit of between £30m and £35m due to rising costs and government funding cuts.

Coun Les told the full meeting of councillors:

“With regard to the Grand Hotel, I would reckon [it would cost] half a billion pounds freehold value, and another half a billion pounds to refurbish.

“I think that is a step too far, and I don’t think Coun Gareth Dadd, executive member for finance, would agree even if I had the mad idea of doing it.”

When it opened in 1867, the Grade-II listed hotel was the largest in Europe, but in recent years the Grand Hotel has received attention in the form of online reviews and videos documenting its poor condition.

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