THE young executive — let’s call him Michael — was bemused. “Well, I would buy a crash pad in the centre of Bradford,” he said. “But I just can’t find anywhere I actually want to live.” Michael, who has recently got a new job, lives in the Yorkshire countryside. Monday to Friday he works in Bradford city centre, an hour’s commute from home. He often has late meetings and evening events, so on his salary a nice little
pied-à-terre would be affordable. Especially when the average price of a flat in Bradford is £119,877, against £172,970 in central Leeds and £166,986 in York, according to the Land Registry.
There are now 815 homes (most of them apartments) in the centre of Bradford. The city has a population of 468,000, placing it among the fastest-growing communities in the UK. We know all about the northern cities with too many apartments. Here is the flip-side: demand but limited supply. The whispers are that investors lack confidence in Bradford, that the city centre is not safe, that this talk of renaissance is all hype.
“Send your friend to me!” cries Maud Marshall, the chief executive of Bradford’s Urban Regeneration Company. “I’ll find him a place somewhere. We have another 5,000 new citycentre homes in the pipeline. That’s 1,600 with planning consent, nearly 3,200 awaiting consent and 475 under construction.”
Even Marshall, an indefatigable champion of urban renewal, concedes that progress in Bradford is not exactly racing. “Broadly, we are on track,” she says. “But I suppose that we would all like things to go faster. People forget that regeneration is not an overnight event. We are in this for the long haul. It’s going to take the next ten years.” This is the reality of regeneration. First comes the big visionary ( Bradford had Will Alsop, with his 2003 Masterplan, which included flooding Centenary Square to create an artificial lake). Then in come the fast-buck developers rushing to get planning permissions, which they sit on. Then, after a time, come the harsh facts and figures.
A report by Knight Frank property consultants this year concluded that if Bradford city centre was to reach its Masterplan aims of becoming a place “where people are justifiably proud of where they live, learn, work and play”, then it must increase the amount of office space and improve its shops.
Simple as that. Doesn’t mention a lake, which, after public consultation, is to be scaled back by at least a third. “The problem with the Alsop plan,” says one regeneration expert, “is that it raises expectations without really being able to deliver, so the market is presented with greater uncertainty when what it always, always, needs is the opposite.” This “uncertainty” means that the £300 million Broadway shopping centre, which includes 171 apartments and is intended as a cornerstone of Bradford’s retail revival, is not even a building site yet. It was originally due to open in 2008. The developer, Westfield, has cleared the land and signed up Debenhams and Bhs. But it will not start work until “the scheme is as fully leased as possible”.
When will that be? They can’t say. Simon Holberton, Westfield’s director of corporate affairs, will only comment: “We are not walking away from Bradford. We have spent £50 million already and the scheme is definitely going ahead. We are totally committed to it.”
Asghar Ali, a 30-year Bradford resident and entrepreneur, has already been in talks with Westfield. His businesses include Lahore, a renowned café-bar where curry and jam roly-poly sit happily together on the menu. He believes that private investment from Bradford’s thriving Asian community will play an increasing role in rescuing faltering regeneration schemes. “I told them: Why not have a Bombay Stores next to the Body Shop? An Indian supermarket? If they want to get on in Bradford, developers are going to have to start thinking that way.” And produce top-spec apartments for people like Michael to live in.
Knight Frank’s latest report on the residential market in northern cities says: “In a quest to achieve acceptable sales rates within realistic timeframes developers are having to pay greater attention to design and build quality. Schemes in good locations and conversions with character will be on safe ground, but mid-range units with few or no USPs (unique selling points) will face a tougher market.” In the old wool trade centre of Little Germany, the conversion of Eastbrook Hall, a Methodist chapel known as the “Cathedral of the North”, into 73 apartments by Aldersgate Estates certainly fits the USP criteria. In a stunning Edwardian building extensively renovated since being gutted by fire in 1996 prices start at £109,500 for a 439 sq ft one-bedroom apartment.
John McGinnis, a developer who was appointed OBE for his work in transforming the centre of Londonderry, has chosen Bradford for the first mainland ventures of his company, John McGinnis Urban; he is seeking planning permission to convert the former Beehive textile mills into 500 apartments, and wants to put shops, a restaurant and 50 flats into Manor Buildings, Sir Titus Salt’s old wool warehouse.
He could have chosen anywhere in the country. So why here? “The infrastructure in Bradford is good, the university is very successful, the retail will come,” he says. “Everything is in place for Bradford to become great again, but there’s no one ready to put a toe in the water yet.” Perhaps they have been afraid of floundering in the lake.
Eastbrook Hall, 01274 590400;McGinnis Urban, www.themcginnisgroup.com, 0113 3870690
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