A NEW prospectus detailing why Bradford must be “the UK’s number one levelling up priority” says two sites in the city could be transformed with the right investment.

And this transformation could include a new “food hub for the North.”

The Levelling Up Prospectus for the city was launched this week in a bid to bring more investment into Bradford.

If it achieves what it sets out to, it could lead to major changes in two areas in particular - the “Southern Gateway” to the city centre and a swathe of land in South Bradford, near the M606.

As part of the Government’s Levelling Up Agenda, 20 towns and cities will be targeted for support from Government.

So far Wolverhampton and Sheffield have been named as cities that will get this support, and Bradford Council hopes its prospectus will convince Government to add Bradford to that list.

It has also been handed out to businesses at the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum that was held in Leeds this week in the hope of attracting private sector investment to the city.

One of the main areas of the city pushed in the prospectus is South Bradford – 43 hectares of land that includes the former Richard Dunn site, land next to Odsal Stadium and land to the West of the M606.

It says the area could provide “housing, sustainable transport and sustainable energy pro-vision, a food hub for the North and a community hub.”

The food hub for the North will involve the relocation and expansion of the St James’ Market site on Wakefield Road.

And the “sustainable energy provision” is likely to include a £5m solar farm that has been included in Bradford Council’s budget for the coming years.

Regeneration of the Southern Gateway, a section of the city between Manchester Road and Leeds Road, had been linked to plans for a new rail station on Wakefield Road.

However, late last year the Government announced that its planned Northern Powerhouse Rail line would be all but scrapped dealt a major blow to Bradford’s high speed rail aspirations.

Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said the authority was still pushing for the station. But “with or without the guarantee of a station”, a push to regenerate the Southern Gateway will still go ahead – albeit on a much longer timescale.

He prospectus says the Southern Gateway is 150 hectares of land – “three times the size of Canary Wharfe.”

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Continuing the London theme, it claims the area provides a “Kings Cross style regenera-tion opportunity” that could create 27,000 new jobs and add a £30 billion uplift to the city.

Cllr Hinchcliffe referred to the Southern Gateway saying: “It is still a regeneration priority for us – we’ll still push for that regeneration, but without the rail investment it will take longer.”

She said that while the Northern Powerhouse Rail station was currently in limbo, Government had promised to electrify the Bradford to Leeds line, reducing journey times to 12 minutes.

She added: “That will have regeneration benefits for this area.”

Referring to the food hub of the North planned for South Bradford, Cllr Hinchliffe said: “We’re still planning to move the wholesale market – it needs a bigger site, and it will open up the St James’ site for development.

“There are businesses waiting to go into the market and there isn’t enough space. There is opportunity to expand.

“(South Bradford) has great connectivity to the heart of the city and to transport links. We want to move the wholesale market to that end of the city.

“All this is something that will happen over at least 10 years – it is a long-term regenera-tion plan.”

Although Bradford has recently been awarded one off grants for Levelling Up, Cllr Hinchcliffe said longer term support was needed.

She said: “We don’t need one off beauty parade style projects, we need long term in-vestment.”

Speaking about how private investment will be key to the developments included in the prospectus, she added: “Government reassured us they would invest in NPR and they didn’t. There was a lot of wasted time and effort. We need to spend more time with pri-vate sector investors and work with them to provide the investment, and the Government can come and fill in any viability gaps.

“We’re doing a lot of developments ourselves, but you need more than just Council mon-ey to make big changes.”