BRADFORD Council has not yet drawn up a contingency plan for a "no deal" Brexit - but admits it would be the "most disruptive" outcome for the district.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that of the five West Yorkshire Councils only Wakefield has clarified specific steps they’ve taken towards mitigating for the UK leaving the EU without a deal on March 31 next year.

The FOI response revealed that there had been an initial report into the impact of Brexit on Bradford in October 2016. Updated reports were meant to be presented to the Council following this, but were dropped due to a "lack of concrete progress from negotiations."

The response says: "As part of the Local Government family, we recognise that No Deal is the most disruptive of all the policy scenarios and could be reality in less than 8 months."

It also says that the Council’s European Enterprise Network Team will be delivering a range of events between September and December focusing on the changing trading environment between the UK and EU. The Council is also working in partnership with the Local Enterprise Partnership to secure funding to support businesses with "economic resilience" over the next few years.

When asked if any money had been put into the council's reserves specifically to mitigate the impact of Brexit, the response said: "Advice from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy indicates that there will be no short term Brexit bounce and so the UK economy likely to remain in a low-growth pattern, so with promises to NHS, Defence and potentially Schools and Police in the Spending Review 2019, pressure remain on local Government and across places throughout England.

"This continued austerity is reflected in the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.

"The Council does not have any specific reserve set aside for Brexit but there are reserves set aside for potential risks generally of which Brexit is identified in the strategy. There is no specific allocation to replace any loss of EU structural funds."

In its response, Leeds City Council acknowledged Brexit was a “risk” but said no impact assessment had been done because negotiations were still ongoing.

Kirklees Council said it was monitoring the potential impact of Brexit on the region, and that its work would “step up as we become clearer about the nature of the deal with EU, or in the event there is no deal”.

Calderdale said it was completing a “comprehensive updated risk and impact assessment” which would be presented to its Audit Committee in the autumn.

Wakefield Council meanwhile, said it had set up a working group to look at all scenarios, and highlighted several areas where it had identified concerns.

Among these was the effect on businesses if migrant workers were forced out of the UK and a cut in investment in its logistics sector.

Bradford Council Leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe said: “We’re grafting hard to support a pioneering Bradford district to succeed in the future, regardless of what kind of Brexit is delivered.

"As regards the council’s budget, it is well publicised that we are facing a number of external factors that could have an impact on our finances, Brexit being just one of those.

"Several others also exist including the severe government cuts which are continuing, rising demand on adult and children’s social care services and the government’s review of local government financing. We set out the Medium Term Financial Strategy in July. In this paper, the Council considered the potential impacts of Brexit alongside the review of local government financing, business rates localisation and health and social care demand in order to determine the budget we will need over the next three years.

"Austerity is hugely damaging to local public services and has distracted the government from proper management of the country. In thinking about a new world post Brexit they need to invest significantly in the North of England. I want to make sure Bradford prospers.”