After two years chairing Bradford Property Forum I will next month pass the chair on to Jonathan Riley, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons.

During that time, we’ve had more success than failure in pushing forward some of the challenging issues that the district has, despite recent shortages of money.

We twice put Westfield in the firing line and the scheme is now closer to the horizon.

Our survey of young people was a success. The heritage challenges such as Little Germany’s commercial opportunities provided a provocative debate, with English Heritage and the council leader agreeing to look at new ways of working with the private sector to create jobs and homes.

Two events with the council chief executives of Bradford and Leeds suggested collaboration not competition as the only way to reinstate city pride.

A visit to Keighley addressed the local retail and housing challenges, showing some great work in bringing back blighted housing and commercial sites.

The local impact of grant funding could be seen but also how a major retail scheme can move forward in a suburban town in still difficult economic times.

Representation in London to promote inward investment and at the international property conference, MIPIM, provided a wider focus. When I took over we had to build a local, regional, national and international perspective and to sell the city; that has been a success.

I’m sure we’ll soon see the start of the Westfield scheme and start to see a brighter future for our city.