Culture & Skills for a Producer City: The People element of the Bradford City Plan Tony Stephens – AD, Cultural Services CBMDC
David Rudlin – Director, URBED
Academy of Urbanism Workshop 16 May 2013
People, culture and skills in Bradford city centre • This workshop will focus on how people within Bradford city centre will be a driver for regeneration and growth • The approach:– Setting the context - our vital statistics – Set out critical dilemmas – Challenge thinking on resilience and response to changing trends
A new approach: The City Plan •The overarching purpose of the plan is to make “a City that we can all be proud of" •The plan is made up of 4 elements • People and Prosperity are drivers for growth • Place and Property are enablers of growth •The plan will identify issues and interventions and the relevant projects and programmes to enable and manage delivery
City centre living • 4,177 residents – up from just 900 in 2001 • 55% of residents are students • Young, very diverse population – just 42% were born in the UK • Only 6% of residents are under 16, and 2.4% are over 60 • 75% of households are privately renting. 96% of homes are flats or apartments. • Sales and rental housing markets are underperforming
City centre working and skills • Only 34% of residents are employed (largely due to concentration of students) • Biggest occupation group is for routine, elementary occupations (21% of those employed) • Mean household income is £26,000 (lower than district average of £32k) • Qualification levels of residents are generally high, but 30% at Level 2 or lower • Nearly 1,000 different courses on offer at Bradford College and Bradford University
Creative employment • between 2008 and 2011 employment in the creative industries fell by 8.8% across the Bradford District compared to 3% within the UK • between 2008 and 2011 employment in tourism fell by 17.9% compared to 1.3% in the UK
City centre culture - mixed messages • Bradford district is a low engagement area for arts and cultural activities amongst its adult population at 36%. This figure drops to 14% within the City Centre. • BME engagement in arts and cultural activities is measured at 17%, however within our libraries provision this figure stands at 61% • Yet, over 650,000 people took part in council delivered arts and cultural activities in 2012/13
A more resilient city centre – our housing dilemma? Business as usual means:• Another 3,500 homes needed. Probably 80% flats. • 5,950 more residents • Probably aged 20 – 40 • Likely on low incomes
Or we could:• Build 1,000 family homes • 4,000 new residents • Including 2,000 children • Needing new schools • And places to play • And other amenities
A more resilient city centre – our culture dilemma? • Does the council intervene to increase leisure activity in the city centre? • If so, what does that intervention look like? • What does success look like? • What pitfalls do we need to avoid ?
Key questions • Is it possible to re-balance extremes? Has it been done elsewhere? • Is the ‘business as usual’ housing trajectory inevitable or achievable? • How can we retain our graduates and up-skill our lower-skilled residents? • How much of our regeneration plans should be culture led?