Bradford Economic Partnership
The Bradford Economic Partnership brings together a team of senior leaders from local businesses and key organisations including Bradford Council, the University of Bradford, the City Region Enterprise Partnership and the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce to oversee and drive delivery of the district’s inclusive economic growth needs.
Formed in 2017, the partnership has overseen the delivery of the Bradford Economic Strategy and provides a credible and powerful voice for the city in regional, national and international forums.
Despite the unforeseen impact of Covid-19, the ambition set out in our Economic Strategy - Pioneering, Confident and Connected for 2018-30 (PDF) - remains unchanged.
Our aim remains to grow skills, jobs, productivity and earnings so that Bradford is the UK’s fastest growing economy and we are performing above the national average.
This means:
- increasing the value of Bradford’s economy faster than the UK average;
- getting more people into work to bring employment rates closer to UK rates; and
- improving the skills of residents to close the gap to UK levels.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we had begun to deliver on this ambition: employment had increased by 10,700 between 2017/18 and 2019/20, median weekly earnings had increased from £489 to £537 and we were working to strengthen the district’s position in the global economy. We attracted interest and inward investment from leading national companies including PwC, NEC and Channel 4 and we were ranked by Barclays as the best place to start a business and featured in The Sunday Times as one of the top cities for growth.
The Economic Partnership will be reformed to deliver Bradford District’s Economic Recovery Plan which sets out the actions we need to take now and over the next two years to accelerate our recovery from Covid-19. This will be achieved by sustaining employment and boosting productivity whilst continuing to build a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient economy for the subsequent period.
Our Recovery Plan has been developed at a time of real economic challenge as we work alongside our partners and communities to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic whilst addressing climate change and the impact of exiting the European Union.
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