Nearly £30m unlocked for 'City Village' works

Shops, cafes and three new parks will be built as part of the project

Work could start on a new city centre development in Bradford after the council accepted nearly £30m of government funding for the project.

About 1,000 homes are to be built in what the council called a "City Village", along with retail and leisure spaces.

The local authority said the grant would be used for the demolition of the Oastler and Kirkgate Shopping Centre sites as part of the initial work on the scheme.

A developer for the project was also appointed at a meeting on Tuesday and a spokesperson for the authority said the proposals were "starting to attract high levels of interest".

Dave Shepherd, director of place at Bradford Council, said research had found that increasing numbers of people wanted to live in cities.

"They enjoy the buzz of city centre life," he said.

"The regeneration of Bradford is showing the investment community that Bradford is open for business, and we're starting to attract high levels of interest.

"This will bring around the scale of improvements necessary to turn the city's fortunes around."

Construction work could begin in 2027, a council meeting heard

Under the plans the Oastler Centre would be demolished in late 2025 and the Kirkgate Centre would be knocked down in 2026, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council accepted £29.9m from Homes England's Brownfield Infrastructure & Land fund at the meeting to help kickstart the project.

Councillors also appointed ECF, a partnership between Homes England, Legal & General and Muse, as its preferred development partner.

Construction is expected to start in 2027 and continue for a decade.

Simon Woodhurst, regeneration development manager, said Bradford was starting from a "low base" when it came to city centre living.

But he hoped schemes such as the pedestrianisation of certain areas was making the city more attractive.

He added: "Hopefully the new mass transit scheme will give people the ability to live in the city centre and travel elsewhere."

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