West Yorkshire and corridors of opportunity

Today, West Yorkshire is a diverse and young region of 2.4 million people. It has a broad economic base and almost 100,000 businesses creating innovative, high-quality goods and services. Established industries like manufacturing and financial services have been joined by a thriving knowledge and creative economy that includes specialisms such as healthtech, fintech, and space.

In recent years, the region has experienced faster growth in the overall business stock than nationally. It also has a high rate of fast-growing businesses, with Leeds having the UK’s highest rate outside London. 

The region’s seven universities[1] host around 111,000 students and produce 35,000 graduates each year. A unique partnership with Yorkshire Universities ensures that West Yorkshire benefits from a robust research, innovation and talent pipeline. Seven further education colleges, outstanding private providers and the only specialist construction college in the UK deliver the talent that drives excellence in the region.

The 3M Buckley Innovation Centre at the University of Huddersfield, Nexus at the University of Leeds, and Tileyard North in Wakefield provide world-class space for businesses to innovate, connect and grow. The world’s largest longitudinal research study, Born in Bradford, and university centres of excellence such as the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics align with world-class data strengths to present growth opportunities. A former power station at Skelton Grange in Leeds will soon be home to a hyperscale Microsoft data centre. Production Park in Wakefield is the largest studio space in Europe, building on XPLOR the regional centre of excellence in immersive technology.

The Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise sector in West Yorkshire is significant in its breadth, depth and diversity. There are 5,700 registered organisations, around 7,400 unregistered informal groups, 31,000 employees and 126,000 regular volunteers collectively produce 9 million hours of work. The sector’s direct economic value amounts to £1.4 billon, increasing to 4.9 billion when considering added and social value.

Culture and heritage strengths will continue to draw visitors and new investment to the region, with nationally significant events and opportunities across each district. 

Over the next decade, West Yorkshire will see transformational investment in the transport network, an ambitious sustainability programme, and growth across key sectors. 

[1] The Higher Education Sector has been estimated to contribute £19.7 billion to the wider economy of Yorkshire and the Humber, with a significant amount delivered in West Yorkshire.

Bradford

UK City of Culture for 2025, the world’s first UNESCO City of Film, with a young, diverse and creative population. Bradford is a large and broad-based economy with a thriving food sector, emerging strengths in space technologies, clean energy and advanced engineering and an outstanding university. Transformative investment in a series of once in a generation city infrastructure projects mean Bradford is ready to unlock its potential as the biggest and most important growth opportunity in West Yorkshire, if not the North of England. The Leeds-Bradford conurbation of 1.3 million people has the potential to drive unmatched growth in prosperity over the next ten years.

Calderdale

Music, arts, culture and heritage are major strengths for the district, building on internationally renowned The Piece Hall in Halifax. Calderdale has strengths in manufacturing that sit alongside large financial and professional services institutions such as Lloyds, Covea, and RSA. It also has a growing reputation as a TV and film hotspot which attracts tourists from around the world. Calderdale is home to a thriving SME community, with the highest regional business density and above-average survival and start-up rates.

Kirklees

The district’s rich music heritage was recently celebrated through a year of music. It has high-performing manufacturing and engineering sectors, with above-average productivity within sector specialisms such as textiles and chemicals. Kirklees is home to the University of Huddersfield, with leading strengths in health, materials and rail.

Leeds

Leeds is the core city of West Yorkshire and the strongest driver of economic activity and jobs. The city has a leading digital sector and is home to Leeds Digital Festival – the country’s largest open tech event, representing the most collaborative digital and tech community in the UK. A thriving financial and professional services sector includes nationally significant assets such as the Bank of England and the National Wealth Fund. Leeds is the UK’s foremost health location with unrivalled strengths in policy, data, diagnoses, devices and tech. The city is home to a vibrant cultural scene and an innovation ecosystem underpinned by a thriving higher education presence. It has the UK’s only specialist building college and the first ‘Outstanding’ rated local authority adult education provision.

Wakefield

Wakefield has an internationally significant cultural sector and is home to the world-renowned Hepworth Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Production Park. Tileyard North is one of the best recording studios and music engineer training facilities in Europe. The only UK city outside London to have two UK Museums of the Year, Wakefield is a UNESCO city of learning. With excellent regional and national connectivity, the area has seen a construction boom in recent years.

The Combined Authority is on track to invest over £7 billion over the next ten years, including an ambitious programme of transport capital investment. Transport investment alone is currently projected to generate a further £2.2 billion in economic output, create 12,700 additional jobs and add 0.6% to the region’s GVA. The West Yorkshire Mass Transit programme will invest over £2 billion to deliver the first phase.

The TransPennine Route Upgrade is an £11 billion programme of rail upgrades to passengers across West Yorkshire and across the Pennines to Greater Manchester bringing faster, more reliable and sustainable trains.

Master planning has begun for a new through station in Bradford to boost economic growth, increase connectivity, attract tourism and provide regeneration opportunities. Previously announced plans include £2 billion to build the station and a new line to deliver a significantly faster, 30-minute journey to Manchester via Huddersfield. A better-connected Bradford will drive economic growth in West Yorkshire and create up to 27,000 new jobs across the whole of the north.

Bradford is the UK’s City of Culture for 2025. Over the course of 12 months, there will be over 1,000 shows, exhibitions and events taking place celebrating the people and places of Bradford. This will be one of the top UK destination experiences of the year.

Leeds Bradford Airport’s vision for 2030 commits to spending £200 million in the next five years, increasing passenger numbers and flights. Development will include a new terminus building. The proposals will support 12,100 jobs by 2030, increasing well-paid, highly skilled aviation jobs and contributing nearly £1 billion to the regional economy.

West Yorkshire has delivered more affordable new homes in the last year than at any time in the previous decade. To date, funding has been committed for 5,037 new homes on brownfield housing sites, including 1,770 affordable homes.

Home Energy West Yorkshire will drive a home energy revolution by providing a one-stop shop for energy efficiency upgrades, creating up to 30,000 well-paid jobs.

The West Yorkshire electric vehicle charging points programme and award-winning Leeds PIPEs will continue to boost economic opportunity in a sustainable future.

Bradford’s Local Industrial Decarbonisation Project has high levels of business engagement and is seen as an exemplary initiative. Funding to build Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen, the UK’s largest hydrogen production facility has been confirmed as part of a £2 billion programme to stimulate the production and demand for green hydrogen.

Working with the universities in Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds, the West Yorkshire Investment Zone will help to create more than 2,500 new jobs across the region over the next five years and could unlock £220 million in investment.

Our Cultural Heart is the flagship project of the Huddersfield Blueprint, a ten-year plan to revitalise six areas of Huddersfield, to create a thriving modern-day town centre. The Cultural Heart project will introduce community-focused cultural sites including a new art gallery, library, museum, food hall and entertainment venue.

Plans in Calderdale include the North Halifax Transformation Programme which will see development of three sites at Illingworth, Ovenden and Mixenden. 

West Yorkshire’s £66 billion economy is made up of an interconnected network of urban centres. The places and communities of West Yorkshire play different but complementary roles. They have distinctive strengths and there is substantial variation in the distribution of wealth. A workforce of 1.2 million is employed across a diverse range of sectors, with high numbers of jobs in health, manufacturing and financial and professional services.

West Yorkshire is a self-contained labour market – 90 percent of workers live in the Combined Authority area. Around a third of residents work in a different local authority area from where they live, with just under half of those commuting into Leeds.

Business activity is concentrated in the centre of the region, close to each local authority’s boundary, with some high-density zones such as North-East Leeds and South-East Wakefield.

The region’s core city of Leeds drives Gross Value Added (GVA), enabling West Yorkshire to compete on a global level. As the largest urban and economic centre, growth in Leeds can provide even more jobs and opportunities for people across the region through transformational connectivity. Alongside Leeds, the city of Bradford offers the greatest opportunity for growth. Bradford is the seventh-most populous city and tenth largest economy in England. The two cities combined are home to a population of 1.3 million people. Improved connectivity alongside major regeneration projects will be key to unlocking agglomeration benefits between the region’s powerhouses. 

The city of Wakefield benefits from being one of the UK’s most accessible places by road, rail and air. To the north-east of Wakefield are the Five Towns, comprising Castleford, Pontefract, Normanton, Knottingley and Featherstone, which together have a population of 113,000.

The south-west extent of the region offers a varied landscape of urban and rural areas within the districts of Kirklees and Calderdale. The area is bordered by the South Pennines to the West, characterised by its distinctive valleys including the Colne, Holme, Calder and Dearne. Between Halifax and Huddersfield there are smaller settlements such as Elland and Brighouse, while to the north-east of Huddersfield are the historic built-up areas of Heckmondwike, Cleckheaton, Batley, Dewsbury and Mirfield.

The region’s smaller towns, villages and countryside are integral to its character and success. These places are some of the most desirable to live. Others have a proud industrial and economic heritage, but, without the benefit of economic growth in the recent past, are now ambitious about future plans. Key tourist destinations play an important role in supporting the visitor economy.

Central areas of West Yorkshire’s districts are becoming increasingly important, reflecting the nature of economic growth and sectoral specialisms in knowledge-based industries that benefit from agglomeration. Record levels of GVA are being generated in central areas of West Yorkshire, driven by the growing importance of central Leeds. However, growth in central areas has not kept pace with the UK average.  

West Yorkshire is a diversified economy with knowledge-based specialisms predominantly based in Leeds, but with growth across the region including Bradford and Halifax. Financial and professional services, manufacturing and health drive the region’s GVA. The region has above-average levels of productivity in existing manufacturing specialisms[2] in Wakefield and Kirklees, with more manufacturing jobs per capita than across the North. Occupations experiencing the most significant employment growth in recent years are mainly high-skilled, including science, research, engineering and technology professionals.

Longstanding sector strengths, combined with a focus on digital and data science, are leading to the emergence of new industries at the forefront of technology. The economy of West Yorkshire has strengths in a remarkably diverse range of sectors, with opportunities for growth in emerging clusters in:

• Financial and professional services, with specialisms in fintech and green finance 
• Life sciences, with specialisms in healthtech
• Advanced manufacturing and engineering, with specialisms in textiles, chemicals, space, modern methods of construction and green technologies
• The creative industries  

The fusion of established, well-known and often globally significant strengths is opening new frontiers in the economy. This is where growth opportunities lie.

Efforts for growth must focus on addressing barriers to deliver transformational investment, while reforming the Combined Authority’s public services offer. Crucial to this will be the Leeds-Bradford conurbation.

[2] These includes furniture, manufacturing of chemicals and manufacturing of machinery.

The West Yorkshire economy is growing but faces structural economic challenges, with the region falling behind the UK and international peers. At the forefront of this is productivity growth, which impacts the competitiveness of the economy and living standards. Slow productivity growth is compounded by entrenched deprivation and poverty. Educational progression and access to opportunity has not translated across all groups and areas, while insufficiently tailored and joined-up support has prevented those facing disadvantages in the labour market from finding good work. This has meant that while there has been economic growth, not all residents have been able to benefit.

Lower productivity means that West Yorkshire residents have fewer opportunities, lower skills, poorer connectivity and worse wellbeing. Growing the economy is not just about increasing wealth in the region – it is about tangibly improving the lives of people, more than one in five of whom live in some of the most deprived areas in the country.

The Local Growth Plan has been designed to tackle three major barriers that are holding back the socio-economic potential of West Yorkshire.

Investment

Public and private investment in West Yorkshire diverged from the national average following the financial crash of 2008 and particularly in the last decade.  

Infrastructure

Poor connectivity between the core urban centres of West Yorkshire and in particular Leeds and Bradford is constraining growth and restricting agglomeration benefits.

Skills

While the region has seen growth in highly skilled occupations, higher level skills are not in line with the national average. Poor health alongside barriers such as accessing high-quality childcare is hampering labour market participation.

Meeting the UK average of GVA per person would mean an economy £11 billion larger than it is today. On current trends the region’s productivity gap is projected to widen. Without concerted action, by 2044 West Yorkshire is due to lag the UK average by more than £15 billion.

GVA performance and projections, UK and West Yorkshire
Source: Experian, West Yorkshire Combined Authority REM (2024 projections). Note: productivity per worker calculated by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (dividing GVA by workforce jobs)[3]

West Yorkshire’s productivity gap is driven by tradable sectors of the economy like manufacturing and financial and professional services, with lower-than-average levels of innovation and exports even in specialisms that do exist. While manufacturing specialisms [4] perform above average in relation to UK productivity, the gap is driven by a low proportion of high complexity manufacturing activities. In knowledge-based services, despite regional specialisms, the productivity gap still exists.  

Closing the productivity gap will require growth in sectors of the economy where West Yorkshire has existing specialisms, alongside the emergence of new opportunities from within specialist sectors.

The ten-year target expects the economy to be £5 billion (+8 percent) bigger than under the baseline scenario by 2035. Therefore, it would close 35 percent of the projected output gap by 2035, leaving a remaining gap of £9.5 billion.

Investment (both public and private) is essential for growth, but in West Yorkshire this has been diverging from the UK average for over a decade aligning with a slow-down in productivity growth. Regional investment underperforms in almost all areas, with significant underperformance on local transport and research and development.

West Yorkshire’s investment in research and development is lower than average in both business and non-business spending. Innovation-related public sector investment is also low in West Yorkshire as a percentage of local GVA, at around half that of investment in the West Midlands, and lower than other comparator regions such as South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

The international investment position in West Yorkshire has diverged from the national average in recent years with investors focusing on areas of perceived high opportunity and low risk. The vast majority of investment in UK SMEs goes towards the golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge, where there is a high density of world-leading universities, as well as angel investors and venture capital firms (Productivity Institute, “Capital Shocks and UK Regional Divergence”, July 2023).  

West Yorkshire is amongst the lowest-performing combined authority regions in terms of both the debt and equity finance that its SMEs receive, and the gap has widened since 2013. It has underdeveloped angel and venture capital networks, with only 29 active venture capital firms (compared to 33 in West Midlands, 53 in Manchester and 569 in London). In terms of debt finance, lending per firm in West Yorkshire is 39 percent lower than the national average (11 percent lower when excluding London)[6].

Leeds accounted for 76 percent of equity investment in West Yorkshire in 2017-2023. However, when compared to peer cities, only Sheffield and Liverpool received less in total equity investment, with significantly more investment received by businesses in Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle[6].

There are national challenges relating to investment in underrepresented founders such as women, people from ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities. Only 3 percent of equity investment went to all-female founding teams in West Yorkshire in the period 2020-2023. Data relating to other underserved communities is limited, but research from the British Business Bank (“Finding What Works”, July 2023) identifies similar challenges.

Socio-economic status appears to play a role, with 43 percent of seed-stage funding going to graduates from elite universities. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s race inclusion report on equality of career progression states “fifty-four percent of white British ethnicity respondents said their career progression has met or exceeded their expectations, but this is only the case for 49 percent of ethnic minority group respondents” (FTI Communications, “Race to Equality”, 2021).

Nationally, it is estimated that £250 billion could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men (Natwest, “The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship”, February 2023), and £100 billion if ethnic minority entrepreneurs received adequate support (Aston University, “Time to Change”, May 2023).

Regional transport networks are under increasing pressure and investment has not kept pace with demand.

Roads are congested, public transport can be overcrowded, and journeys can be unreliable. These are all costs to the economy. Pollution from congested roads worsens public health and the environment. Poor connectivity limits opportunities for residents to access work, for businesses to connect with customers, and for people to have contact with family and friends. West Yorkshire is at the heart of the North's rail network, so investment unlocks reliability and capacity benefits and enables the region to contribute to a stronger and faster-growing national economy. The £11.5 billion TransPennine Route Upgrade is the biggest investment in infrastructure currently being delivered in the UK and will improve journeys from Manchester to Leeds by over 10 minutes.

Congestion on the roads is holding back economic growth and commuting times are increasing - Leeds Central station is close to full capacity. Unless public transport capacity is expanded, growth will be limited.

The availability and costs of transport can be a significant barrier to work for residents in low-income neighbourhoods. Travelling by public transport can be especially difficult for those that have disabilities yet is crucial to so many people’s independence and ability to work.

Sectors that are expected to play an important role in closing the productivity gap, like advanced manufacturing and professional services, report higher dissatisfaction with connectivity than average (West Yorkshire Business Survey).

West Yorkshire has a relatively weak skills base. Despite the need for skilled workers, the estimated employer investment in training has fallen over the last decade. There is a persistent deficit of people with high-level qualifications and a relatively large proportion of people with no or low-level qualifications (West Yorkshire Labour Market Report 2024). West Yorkshire’s skills deficit extends to the employed as well as the unemployed (West Yorkshire State of the Region Reporting).

The situation varies considerably in different local authority areas, with Wakefield having the lowest level of residents with higher skills, while Leeds performs better than the national average. West Yorkshire’s universities attract diverse talent to the region while providing opportunities for home-grown students. Leeds retains the fifth-highest number of graduates in the UK.

In addition, there are underemployment issues in West Yorkshire (ONS study of underemployment in West Yorkshire), especially in Bradford where 10 percent of the population is underemployed compared to 6 percent across the region. Part-time work is more prevalent among lower-skilled people, women and ethnic minority workers compared to the UK average. There is evidence of underutilisation of graduate-level skills. 

West Yorkshire has lower-than-average rates of good quality work as measured by pay and progression. Employers in sectors of strength for West Yorkshire are already facing skills shortages. Colleges currently lack the capacity in both space and tutors to meet this expected demand (West Yorkshire Local Skills Improvement Plan, August 2023).

The low attainment of young people in West Yorkshire perpetuates the area’s weak skills base. They are significantly less likely than the national average to achieve either Level Two or Level Three equivalent qualifications by the age of 19. Much of this underperformance is concentrated in Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield. Disadvantaged pupils are much less likely to achieve qualifications by the age of 19 and Calderdale and Leeds have the widest attainment gaps in West Yorkshire at Level 2 (State of the Region West Yorkshire 2023).

Addressing the shortage of tutors is essential for the success of West Yorkshire’s key industries where a lack of educators is directly impacting the availability of skilled workers. Industries impacted include advanced manufacturing, construction and the Green Economy which will play a central role in enabling economic growth and vital infrastructure development.

School performance is especially weak for learners who qualify for free school meals, whose progression into higher education is below the national average. 

Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) face an increased likelihood of unemployment, low wages, and low-quality work later in life. The proportion of young people who are NEET in West Yorkshire has increased and is now above the national average.

More than one in five people in West Yorkshire live in areas within the 10 percent most deprived in England, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation. This rises to 36 percent of Bradford’s population. One in three children in Leeds lives in the 10 percent most deprived communities nationally. Many of these areas are in towns and cities that, despite having relatively high levels of economic activity, often do not translate into benefits for residents.

West Yorkshire has an ethnically diverse population. Twenty-three percent of people identify as being from an ethnic minority population, compared to 19 percent for the country. Bradford is a particularly diverse city, with ethnic minorities making up 36 percent of the total population. An issue of concern is that residents from ethnic minority groups are more likely than white residents to live in areas of high deprivation. These spatial patterns need to be recognised and that knowledge must be applied in the development of policies that aim to tackle deprivation. Addressing racial inequality is critical to achieving inclusive growth throughout West Yorkshire (West Yorkshire Place Narrative). 

Even though West Yorkshire’s official unemployment rate is close to the national average, it is now rising. The claimant count has grown fastest among young people and women in the last 12 months (West Yorkshire Labour Market Report). 

Poor health plays a role in the underperformance of the West Yorkshire economy, with healthy life expectancy at birth below the national average for both males and females. For women, healthy life expectancy is as low as 56.7 in Wakefield. In Leeds, health inequalities between the most affluent and deprived areas are higher than the national average, with parts of inner south Leeds having the lowest life expectancy for women in the country. For men, lower-than-average life expectancy is true in all West Yorkshire districts except Kirklees.

Around 350,000 (23 percent) of the working age population are economically inactive in West Yorkshire, which is slightly higher than the national average. Of these, 75,000 are inactive due to caring responsibilities, a proportion above the national average [7].

Inactivity due to sickness is in line with England, but slightly higher for long-term illness (and lower for temporary sickness). Around 160,000 of the economically inactive population in West Yorkshire cite sickness or caring responsibilities as the reason.

West Yorkshire has a significant gender pay gap (around 16 percent). Female qualification attainment outstrips male attainment across all key measures. However, the labour market status of women remains lower on average. This suggests other factors such as caring responsibilities and costs are having an impact. Research by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies estimates that regional economies are losing out on £1.68 billion per year as a result of barriers to paid work faced by women (CLES, “Women’s Work”, November 2023).

Severely insecure work [8] is more prevalent among women, people from ethnic minorities, disabled workers and younger people. Some groups (including disabled young people and ethnic minority women) face a double penalty in terms of job insecurity and access to quality work.

West Yorkshire’s productivity performance must be tackled to bring the region in line with the UK average. This requires a focus on:

• Investment: both public and private investment must increase to support infrastructure development and innovation across the business base
• Transport infrastructure: investment in transport infrastructure has not kept pace with demand and is holding back the potential of growth in the region. Maximising the benefits of transport infrastructure development includes supporting regional skills and supply chain development
• Skills: ensuring the region has the right mix of skills is vital for growth. Addressing barriers such as tutor shortages and aligning skills needs to key sectors will be critical. Access to opportunity must be facilitated, including action on health, childcare and early years education.

The Western corridor between Leeds and Bradford offers the most compelling growth opportunities, as it contains the biggest commuter flows between any two UK cities. Sitting just eight miles apart, the proximity of the region’s two key cities is truly unique. They have a combined population close to 1.3 million – bigger than Birmingham (the UK’s second-largest city). Unlocking the opportunity in Bradford through major infrastructure improvements, regeneration and opportunities such as UK City of Culture 2025 is key to driving growth in West Yorkshire.

The density of housing and employment sites in the Western corridor, along with a transport network reaching capacity, mean that agglomeration benefits are currently being supressed. Developing the Western corridor from Leeds to Bradford and on to Halifax and towards Greater Manchester will unleash these benefits.

Taken together, Leeds, Bradford and Halifax have England’s biggest financial and professional services sector outside London, but its benefits are yet to be maximised. This corridor will include the first line of the Mass Transit network between Leeds and Bradford. Along with strengthened rail connectivity to Halifax, this will support greater agglomeration benefits. A Mass Transit and Rail Growth Prospectus and corresponding Spatial Development Framework will be produced to maximise transformational opportunities along the first phase transit routes.

Bradford city centre is a prime focus for regeneration, employment, retail, leisure and housing growth. Regeneration can deliver modern city-centre living, with 7,000 new homes, including Bradford City Village, key commercial sites for high-quality business use and major transport infrastructure.

The Southern Gateway is a further extension to the city centre and a key future location for growth. With the opportunity of a new Northern Powerhouse Rail station and a Mass Transit hub, this area is a major opportunity for transformational change including 5,000 new homes, new business opportunities through office and industrial development, and sustainable urban living.

Leeds city centre is the focal point for economic growth in the city and is a key connecting point for each of the three corridors.  The Leeds Transformational Regeneration Partnership will drive forward the vision for the next phase of city centre development, focusing on investments and interventions to unlock economic, infrastructure and housing growth.  This is aligned with the planning and delivery of the first phases of the new west Yorkshire Mass Transit system and planned improvements to Leeds station, which together will create integrated city, regional and national public transport connectivity and contribute to improved productivity across Northern England.  There is a pipeline of 30,000 new homes to be unlocked over the next 10 years in Leeds city centre, which will drive new place making and connectivity with adjoining inner-city neighbourhoods. Regeneration will enrich the city’s economic and cultural landscape through the development of key cultural and educational anchor institutions, as well as through the West Yorkshire Investment Zone and development of the Leeds Innovation Arc. The North West Leeds employment hub is the city's largest single undeveloped employment site, where with aligned connectivity improvements there is an opportunity to unlock access to around 59 hectares of land adjacent to Leeds Bradford Airport. 

Calderdale is an attractive place to live and boasts a thriving visitor economy and cultural offer. It has the highest business start-up rate in West Yorkshire and has a particular strength in the insurance sector, which makes up 8 percent of its economy. Enhancing connectivity through the Western Corridor will link economic opportunities with significant housing growth, including 1,600 planned homes identified in the Halifax Local Plan with delivery being progressed towards that via North Halifax Transformation Programme. Opportunities to revitalise the housing market in Halifax town centre by bringing brownfield land back into use will act as a catalyst for wider regeneration. This builds on significant investment seen in recent years, such as the Halifax Bus Station redevelopment, accessibility improvements in the town centre and the multimillion-pound transformation of the iconic The Piece Hall.  Electrification of the Calder Valley line will improve journey times and reliability on the rail network in this corridor, enabling greater flows of people to travel for commuting and leisure.

Supporting this corridor of opportunity will require confirmation of:

• Leeds Innovation Arc. This is central to growing the region’s core city and is a catalyst for wider growth, the New Hospitals Programme will act as an accelerator to unlock development within the Leeds Innovation Village.
• Confirmation of commitments in Bradford to secure investment and catalyse the growth of the radio frequency satellite and space cluster. This will enable the region and the UK to embrace global market opportunities in the sector.
• Confirmation of a new through station at Bradford along with Leeds Station capacity improvements and the Calder Valley line electrification.
• Delivery of the Clifton Business Park and completion of the North Halifax Transformation project.

The Southern corridor is centred on the major urban extensions of Dewsbury Riverside and Leeds Southbank, which in the future will be connected via Mass Transit. Leeds South Bank – one of the largest regeneration programmes in Europe – will deliver 35,000 jobs and 4,000 new homes, with flagship cultural elements including British Library North. Investment in this corridor will sit alongside the £11 billion Transpennine Route Upgrade, transforming connectivity in this corridor.

There is significant planned housing growth at Dewsbury Riverside, an urban extension of around 4,000 homes to the south of Dewsbury. This will create new local amenity and highway infrastructure, maximising the benefits of the TransPennine Route Upgrade, new Ravensthorpe station, and improvements to the Penistone line. The Southern corridor links Huddersfield and the major urban extension of Dewsbury Riverside to the core city of Leeds, while also strengthening the link to Greater Manchester and the further agglomeration benefits this will bring.

Further south-west of Dewsbury, Huddersfield has a strong asset base and major regeneration plans such as the Station to Stadium corridor masterplan. This includes the University of Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Campus and significant development opportunities within the wider corridor, such as the Gas Works Street site – both of which are part of the West Yorkshire Investment Zone and will support health and wellbeing.

New garden communities of around 3,000 homes at Brighouse and 52,000 square metres of commercial floorspace at Clifton employment park, supporting 900 jobs on the border of Calderdale and Kirklees, will transform the economic contribution of this strategic corridor by providing the link between the major economic engines of Leeds and Manchester.  

The Eastern corridor will be a catalyst for specific economic opportunity in high growth sectors in Leeds, through the Aire Valley and into Wakefield and its Five Towns. This includes bespoke, specialised and grow-on space, and emerging tech opportunities in Ferrybridge and Skelton Grange, where there is significant planned investment in a new hyperscale data centre run by Microsoft. The Eastern corridor will strengthen connections between Leeds, Wakefield and South Yorkshire, with its strengths in advanced manufacturing, increasing the agglomeration benefits. 

Wakefield is a great place to live and work, with its significant commercial, housing and cultural investment opportunities. The district has seen substantial housing growth and has an outstanding cultural sector of international significance with assets such as the world-renowned Hepworth Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Production Park and Tileyard North. 

A new approach to Wakefield city centre is being developed to create commercial, housing and cultural investment opportunities. This will ramp up the latest phase of urban regeneration in the city. The ambition is to leverage private investment across the district to stimulate regeneration and new employment through creation of a new Strategic Regeneration Partnership for Wakefield City. This will support the diversification of employment to attract more highly skilled jobs, increase job density and improve resilience. 

Adjacent to the corridor sit several strategic development sites:

• Langthwaite Grange extension: 27,000 square metre development that creates the largest studio facility in the North of England and which provides potential to support the expansion of a crative industries cluster headed up by Production Park
• Ferrybridge, an 853,000 square metre site providing opportunities for large scale units for manufacturing and logistics
• Castleford Growth Zone, which has the potential for 3,000 new homes and 16 hectares of employment land and a regenerated waterfront

The corridor sites all have strong links to Leeds and will benefit from agglomeration associated with economic opportunities in the city. This adds to the potential for significant economic growth in the corridor.