West Yorkshire mayor candidate: Arnold Craven

Conservative West Yorkshire mayor candidate Arnold Craven.

Arnold Craven was born in Leeds and grew up on a council estate in Wakefield.

The Conservative Party candidate was one of the first people in his family to go to university and has built a career in property and infrastructure.

He is now a senior manager at a multibillion-pound energy infrastructure company.

His spare time is spent riding motorbikes and "struggling to cook the perfect steak".

He believes he can cut bureaucracy and deliver more

Mr Craven said after talking to business leaders he believes the culture needs to change at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

He said businesses have told him there is "too much bureaucracy and paperwork" when they apply for grants.

The candidate said he wants to make sure everyone on the authority is focused "not on talk, but on delivery".

He said this is especially important in delivering brownfield housing, new infrastructure, a more effective police service and a better adult education system.

He has plans for bus and mass transit system projects

Mr Craven said he had concerns about how bus franchising, with the combined authority controlling services, would be paid for in West Yorkshire as it could cost more than £300m.

He said he had been speaking to infrastructure consultants to develop a model where the franchised system would be paid for by attracting new, private investment to West Yorkshire.

On mass transit, the candidate said it was about political leadership and added it was about making sure the mayor had private sector expertise and knew "how to drive infrastructure forward".

He said his background in business means he can ensure mass transit is delivered.

Policing needs to go 'back to basics', he believes

He thinks political leadership is letting down police officers in West Yorkshire.

Mr Craven said he was a victim of burglary in 2023 and despite it costing him thousands of pounds and being able to provide CCTV, the police did not attend.

If elected, he said he would prepare a new plan to get "back to the basics of policing".

He said he would ensure the police would "respond to, and investigate, every report of a serious burglary and violent crime".

He says his power plans could create lots of jobs

Mr Craven said in his professional life he works on projects to build new, clean, low-carbon hydrogen infrastructure.

He would work with partners like Northern Powergrid and Northern Gas Networks, to make West Yorkshire the leading inland hydrogen hub in the UK.

"This would create thousands of good quality, engineering jobs," he said.

Adding it would create a "a stable, low-cost, energy supply that our manufacturing businesses could make use of."

In his own words