Broken Bradford: Bradford 2025 City of Culture team confident funding will be safe if council goes bankrupt

Bradford Council is making more than 100 redundancies and planning to shut waste tips, libraries and leisure centres in a desperate attempt to balance the books, as it faces a £120m funding gap.

The Labour-run council has warned it will issue a section 114 notice – effectively declaring bankruptcy – without emergency funding from the government.

But it has promised to continue supporting the City of Culture celebrations in 2025, which are expected to cost around £45m.

Over the last two years, the council has provided £6m for the event, which is being run by Bradford Culture Company. It has pledged another £3m in 2024/25.

Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director of Bradford 2025, said: “We know that the Council is having to make some very difficult financial decisions, however, we understand there is no risk to the funding that Bradford Council agreed.”

She also said the government has already invested £10m, Arts Council England provided £5m and the National Heritage Lottery Fund provided another £4.95m.

Ms Gulzar added: “Being UK City of Culture 2025 is predicted to attract 15.5m visitors to the district and bring in an additional visitor spend of £136.9m into the local economy.

“Overall, the increased cultural and economic activity is expected to deliver up to £389m of growth for Bradford district ensuring that the district truly has a year of culture to remember, and that it creates a lasting legacy for the people of Bradford.”

More than 1,000 performances and events, featuring work from 365 artists, are planned for the year-long celebration.

Bradford will take over from Coventry, which has held the City of Culture title since 2021. Other previous winners include Hull (2017) and Londonderry (2013).

The district in West Yorkshire beat off competition from 19 other places to become the next UK City of Culture, with County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham narrowly missing out in the final

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the “young and vibrant” city’s winning bid “drew upon its wide range of local cultural assets”, including the Brontë Parsonage and Saltaire Unesco World Heritage Site.

Screenwriter Sir Phil Redmond, who led the panel of judges for the competition, said he was impressed that people in the city had “a real hunger” for the title.