Work on a multi-million pound city centre shopping complex has been held up after a national designer clothing company - which would have been the main tenant - went into voluntary administration.

The Designer Company Ltd was due to open a 22,000 square foot department store in the new Rawson Quarter.

But the company, which has headquarters in London and shops across Britain, has gone into administration after agreeing terms with the developers.

It has now shut 17 of its stores nationwide, leaving only 29 operating, and its bid to move into new territory in Bradford is now off.

Stephen McManus, director of Keighley-based Chartback which is developing the £8 million Rawson complex, said they had ended negotiations with the company after hearing of its problems.

Mr McManus said: "They would have been our biggest tenants. This will mean a January start rather than the end of September.

"But a lot of companies have wanted to come into the scheme and we targeted a mailing list of about 50. We now have three good expressions of interest."

Mr McManus said Chartback was also in advanced negotiations with an Asian department store operator to move into a 9,000 square foot shop on the site.

He declined to name the company but said it was based in the Midlands and had been established since the 1960s. It would be the first time the company had traded in Bradford.

The planned development will have ten shops and a glazed colonnade leading to a pavilion for food and drink. The scheme will also provide two new public squares which could be used for cultural and leisure events.

The redevelopment of the site would end a saga which has gone back for a decade.

Three quarters of the historic market hall on the site was demolished in preparation for a £6 million redevelopment which never happened because Bradford Council hit funding problems.