Bradford preparing to get thousands of people “job ready” to support £4bn economic growth plan
Bradford has set its stall out as an exciting and growing place for investors at MIPIM this week, as the chair of the Bradford Economic Partnership joined the Leeds City Region delegation to talk of its plans to boost the economy £4bn by 2030.
Bradford Economic Partnership, which started four years ago as Bradford’s Producer City initiative, last month launched the Bradford economic growth strategy, just six months after it was formulated. It has ambitious plans to grow the economy from £10bn GVA to £14bn GVA by 2030.
The partnership wants Bradford to be the fastest growing economy through the next ten years and aims for the city to become the most productive of any city in the Northern Powerhouse.
Dave Baldwin, chair of the partnership, spoke to TheBusinessDesk.com while at MIPIM. He said: “It’s about having civic pride, saying to investors that we are investment ready.
“Our approach now is to get on and do it. Bradford is a city that has done nothing but apologise for itself over the years. But now we want to showcase all of the good things we have and could have – we have assets and it’s about pulling together everything collectively.”
He said that this involved up-skilling 48,000 people to be job ready to cope with the business growth plans. “There is huge growth potential in Bradford. Young people are one of our primary assets and the key to growing existing businesses, as well as attracting new ones,” said Baldwin, who is now chief executive at Burnley FC after four years at the helm at Bradford City FC.
“I run a £120m a year business, it just happens to be that my ‘product’ is football. The business is doing well, we have good people and it’s all about communicating well.
“We are aiming high with the growth strategy and it needs to be sustainable. During 2018, we aim to show measurable differences from our starting point.”
