1,000 home ‘city village’ mooted for Bradford city centre

Bradford Council has appointed real estate specialists, Cushman and Wakefield, to produce a delivery plan for a ‘sustainable new community neighbourhood’ in Bradford city centre.

They hope to build a ‘city village’ of around 1,000 new homes and spaces for businesses built on ‘high quality and sustainable principles.’

The site they have earmarked includes the Oastler indoor market and shopping centre, which is being relocated to a new location on Darley Street.

The new village will incorporate the historical ‘Top of Town’ area which has recently received £2m in Heritage Lottery Funding for its redevelopment.

‘In recent years our city centre has gone from strength to strength,’ said Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council’s executive member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport,

‘This is the start of an exciting opportunity to take it to the next level with sustainable and healthy living combined with high-quality public space that will help shape Bradford for future generations,’ he added.

Stephen Miles, partner in Cushman and Wakefield’s development and planning team added: ‘We are delighted to be involved in engaging in this important mandate on behalf of Bradford Council. We will aim to facilitate an innovative approach to both place making and funding delivery to ensure that the Council’s vision can be realised.’

Much of Bradford’s regeneration plans hinge on the proposed high-speed Northern Powerhouse Rail link, as the council believes a HS2 station will improve connectivity to nearby cities such as Leeds and Manchester.

Earlier this summer, our sister site NewStart interviewed economist Chris Walker, who wrote a report about the benefits of a potential new rail hub in Bradford city centre.

He said: ‘If you can improve the connectivity of Bradford to other northern cities and beyond, you’re releasing a labour supply that at the moment is relatively cut off. Bradford has a connectivity bottleneck, so if you can somehow unblock that, you could release a lot of potential. Bradford is a young city and a lot of people don’t have jobs or opportunity. That’s what needs turning around.’