Bradford

Introduction

The Bradford Metropolitan District has a population of 477,800 and covers an area of some 141 square miles over Airedale, Wharfedale and the Worth Valley. The District includes Bradford City and the towns of Shipley, Bingley, Keighley and Ilkley.

Historical Bradford was dominated by the textile industry, and was the centre of the West Riding wool Industry. This has however declined and the main employers are now in areas such as finance, retail, electronics and manufacturing. Companies located in the city include, the Yorkshire Building Society, Bradford & Bingley plc, Abbey/Group, Provident Financial plc, Morrison's supermarkets, Grattan Mail Order, Pace Micro, Filtronic, NG Bailey, Manufacturing, Denso Marston, CIBA Chemicals.

Recent Visits

Rt Hon Ed Balls MP (DCSF), 7 November 2008 - visited Keighley

Rt Hon John Healey MP (Communities and Local Government), 21 November 2008 - attended Bradford Chamber of Commerce dinner

Rt Hon Alastair Darling MP (Chancellor of the Exchequer), 28 November 2008 - attended Yorkshire Forward business breakfast

Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP (DoH), 28 November 2008 - visited Hillside Bridge Healthcare Centre

Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP (Regional Minister, Yorkshire and The Humber), 28 January 2009 - attended Yorkshire Forward Board meeting, Baildon

Demographics for Bradford

Mid-2007 Population Estimates

Figures updated annually. Last update February 2009. Source: Office for National Statistics.

Children and Learners

• over £2.1m has been allocated for the development of extended schools during 2009-10
• Bradford has been allocated £400m to refurbish or rebuild secondary and special schools in the city under the Building Schools for the Future programme. Completion of the first phase took place in September 2008. Phase two is due for completion in 2009-10. Covering a mixture of secondary, primary and special schools, it concentrates on a campus approach in delivering an inclusive model of special education.

• as part of a £9m national share of funding allocated to 41 local authorities, Bradford has received £350,000 to help parents of pre-school children to get more involved in their education

Crime

• Bradford has been named as one of 40 priority Respect Action Areas in England, for being a council who has a strong record in tackling anti-social behaviour
• over £556,000 has been allocated for 2008-09 from the Basic Command Unit Fund, providing resources that can be targeted locally to tackle crime that matters most to the local community
• over £1.9m has been allocated to Bradford Drug & Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) for 2007-08 from the Drug Intervention Programme to help offenders off drugs, into treatment and away from crime.

Transport

• £11.8m was allocated for Integrated Transport and Maintenance in Bradford in the 2009-10 West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan settlement, announced in November 2007
• £18.7m was allocated for the West Yorkshire Education Transport’s Yellow School Buses scheme which serves around 100 schools in West Yorkshire. £7.3m was allocated for Phase 2 in 2005-06, with 60 buses launched January 2006. A further 60 buses were introduced in September 2006 for Phase 3. The scheme was completed in March 2008

• £3.3m investment in the district’s train stations to upgrade passenger information systems in a joint investment from Department for Transport, Northern Rail, Network Rail and Metro. Real-time information screens are due to be completed by March 2009 with the new public address systems being completed by June 2009. 

Regeneration

• £50m has been awarded over 10 years, under the New Deal for Communities, to enable the social and economic regeneration of the inner city areas of Little Horton, West Bowling and Marshfields
• an extra £69m has been provided through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund to help fight crime and tackle the deep-rooted problems faced by Bradford's most disadvantaged communities since 2001-02
• Bradford Centre Regeneration has been established, to bring forward developments and help create a thriving business climate 
• £21.4m has been allocated from the first round of the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) for the three year period 2006-07 to 2008-09, to increase entrepreneurial activity in the local population of deprived areas within Bradford, support the growth and reduce the failure rate of locally-owned businesses

• £19.2m has beeen allocated for 2009-10 under the Supporting People programme which offers vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by delivering high quality and strategically planned housing-related services which complement existing care services

European Funding

• £436,000 was awarded to the Jobs@Manningham successive job programmes, helping sixteen to twenty-five year olds in the area into training, jobs and voluntary work, 88 per cent of whom are from ethnic minority backgrounds
• £1.46m has been awarded to a new Food Technology Park; built on a derelict site and enabling a cluster of food production companies to be formed. Fifty new jobs will also be created 
• £700,000 was allocated to the National Media Museum towards a new interactive gallery, Experience TV providing a hands-on experience for visitors, strengthening tourism and developing cultural assets in the region

Source: Office for National Statistics. Last updated 23 June 2009

Internet links

• Neighbourhood Statistics
• Regional Snapshot