Council plans 1,000 new homes after £15.5m shopping centre deal

The council said it wants to see a mix of housing types in City Village, including apartments and townhouses, with a choice of tenure from social housing to private rented homes and homeownership.     

It expects demolition of the shopping centre to start in early 2024, with the first phase of development to start just after that. 

The redevelopment of the city centre includes the pedestrianisation of major routes and the creation of a £17.5m cycle route.

The Kirkgate Centre opened in 1976 and was described as Bradford’s “space-age shopping centre”. 

There are now a number of vacant shops in the mall, which the council said has aged rapidly. 

The council has committed to working with all the remaining occupants to relocate them to other parts of the city centre.

The City Village scheme has support from Homes England and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. 

Bradford Council now plans to secure a private developer to take on the scheme. 

Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, said: “We’re heading into a very different world post-pandemic. Good local authorities up and down the country are using their assets and resources to shape their local economy to make them vibrant and sustainable well into the future.

“This is what we’re doing here in Bradford in taking on this major anchor site.”

Alex Ross-Shaw, portfolio holder for regeneration and planning, said that redeveloping the Kirkgate Centre “extends our pipeline of exciting regeneration projects in the city centre for years to come, providing more job opportunities for hundreds of people across the district”.