Bradford is ambitious, Rishi Sunak, but needs a new city centre rail hub - Prof Zahir Irani

However, our district often remains overlooked and underestimated by so many across the country and, in government.

So thank you, Chancellor, for agreeing to hear our collective voice on the case for a new city centre hub station, in Bradford.

I am the Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University – of and for – Bradford and an active Breakthrough member. I was also the Chair of the Bradford Economic Recovery Board that produced the 2021-2026 Economic Recovery Plan for the Bradford District; I’ll be pleased to present a copy to you later this evening.

The university is one of those large employers mentioned earlier, employing more than 1,500 full-time academic, professional, and technical staff, and a further 400 casual staff. We also educate 12,000 full-time students and have a strong ambition to grow our home and international student numbers even further.

This growth will allow us to deliver more impact through our innovative research and knowledge transfer and approach to social mobility, whilst also improving the health and educational outcomes of many citizens, across many disadvantaged communities in West Yorkshire.

The university and district council position great value on the importance of ‘place’’.

Bradford as a ‘‘place’’ is known for its proud heritage, rich culture, and innovation.

Specifically at the University of Bradford, we were the first in the world to develop a peace studies department, while others focused on maintaining their war studies offer.

The Bradford School of Management is one of the oldest business schools in the country, and launched its MBA in 1974, followed by at the time, a radical approach to management development, when it launched a distance learning MBA in 1998 – which features in the top 10 Financial Times annual rankings. The School of Management is among 110 business schools world-wide to have the coveted triple crown and draws students from every corner of the world. It is also the 2021/22 THE Business School of the Year.

The university is very proud to have been ranked First in the Social Mobility Index rankings for two years in a row – 2021 and 2022.

We change lives, and equip the districts young and diverse population with the skills and confidence they need to succeed.

However, to continue to innovate and maintain being a destination of choice, we need to attract and retain talented and versatile staff, and students. Increasingly, we develop this talent, to then see it leave our district.

As a civic and anchor organisation, we will struggle to realise our growth ambitions and expand our circle of influence, if we don’t have a compelling offer that attract those in search of highly skilled employment, new skills or simply upskilling themselves to support businesses that then drive innovation, or simply to attract entrepreneurs seeking a creative environment.

A new Bradford city centre hub station will renew pride and, support much needed regeneration, and also support a commitment to clean growth, wellbeing and improve the visitor experience as you enter Bradford by rail – collectively acting as a catalyst for social, economic and cultural growth and valued added.

A new station will facilitate our transition to a sustainable resilient connected economy. The Bradford district does have many successes to build on, such as being ranked by the Barclays Growth Index as the best place to start a new business (2017), and again in 2021 and, was featured in The Sunday Times (in February 2020) as one of the top UK cities for growth.

We are ambitious folk – and want you to share this ambition with us.

I want to leave you with a clear message, The job of levelling up Bradford is not yet done.

We want to respectively ask the Government to redraw those strong connections between a new city centre hub station and its role in unlocking a mega-regeneration project that will create a modern European city that can attract and retain talent, boost productivity, increase employment, and leverage the districts diverse cultural assets, whilst continuing to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient economy that allows all our communities to thrive.

- A speech by the University of Bradford’s Deputy-Vice-Chancellor to Rishi Sunak calling for a new rail hub for the city.