Investment in Bradford city is needed to combat the “major problem” of unemployment as the latest figures revealed 16,000 people in the district are claiming out of work benefits.

Bradford Council’s executive member for regeneration, Councillor Dave Green, said business schemes in the Aire Valley needed to get “off the drawing board” to give the economy a boost.

Coun Green spoke out as figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday showed there are 16,178 people claiming Jobseekers allowance.

This month’s figure is down slightly from 16,210 in March. But it still represents five per cent of people able to work claiming the benefits – the highest proportion in West Yorkshire. Coun Green said: “We have clearly got a major problem with unemployment and this demonstrates a real need to create jobs in Bradford district, given the number of job seekers as they stand and the growing population.

“We need to get the regeneration of the city centre sorted and there are new schemes in the Aire Valley which will create jobs.”

There are 11,388 men and 4,790 women in the district claiming the allowance, with 404 fewer men and 580 more women claiming than in 2010, the figures showed.

Bradford East has the most number of allowance claimants, with 6.2 per cent of constituents without a job.

That is followed by Bradford South (5.4), Bradford West (5.2), Keighley (3.8) and Shipley (3.5).

Councillor Adrian Naylor, the Council Conservative group’s spokesman for economic development and finance, welcomed the slight jobs increase.

However, he said more jobs would have been created if more Government funding had been spent by the Council on supporting businesses.

  • Read the full story in Thursday's T&A