A scheme to be launched in the north of Bradford will bring jobs joy to thousands.

Regeneration agency REGEN 2000 is bringing in a £1 million scheme to steer people into jobs.

The area covered by the organisation, including Barkerend and parts of Bradford Moor, Thornbury and Undercliffe, has a population of 22,000 and some of Britain's most deprived wards.

The unemployment rate of 15.3 percent compares with a district average of 5.8 per cent. More than 19 per cent of young people are out of work compared with a district figure of about 8.5 per cent.

But REGEN 2000, which is administering a £28 million award from the Government's Single Regeneration Budgets, says developments are taking place creating jobs which should go to local people.

Now the board has decided to set up a job brokerage scheme and has gone out to tenders inviting companies to apply.

The companies have been told they must meet challenging targets in a regeneration scheme which is more than bricks and mortar. REGEN 2000 officer Ashaq Gulab said: "We are dealing with areas which are in the country's top ten most deprived wards. In some parts the unemployment rate is three times the district's average."

But he pointed out that that work would start work soon on the planned £200 million Broadway shopping scheme and the regeneration partnership scheme had contributed to the redevelopment of Little Germany.

Mr Gulab said improvements to the Leeds Road "gateway" to the city would also bring new jobs which should go to local people.

The agency would act as "job brokers" he said, assessing the job hunters and linking into businesses and organisations locally and nationally to steer them into jobs.

REGEN 2000 board chairman Shaukat Ahmed said: "One of the problems is that there are no major companies in this area to provide large numbers of jobs. We would like local people to get priority. Our programme is not looking just at the short term. We are looking at employment and lasting benefits."