Falling house prices can be a double-edged sword, depending on your point of view.

For those who are hoping to get on the property ladder, the claim that house prices in Bradford have fallen by nine per cent in the last year should be good news. But with the economy still in the doldrums and banks remaining reluctant to lend, mortgages are so hard to come by that cheaper homes in the district will not have the positive impact on buyers that they perhaps could have.

Thus we are left with the view that the dip in house prices puts Bradford among the worst-performing cities and towns, and with little prospect of house-price growth in the coming year. This is ultimately another black mark against the district’s reputation.

The suggestion that prices are falling intimates that the desire to move into the district is stagnant. Rather than sitting back and wishing and waiting for the market to recover, perhaps we should instead be tackling the problem from the other side.

A more buoyant housing market would surely be helped into place if there was more speedy regeneration of Bradford, making it a more desirable location that people wanted to move into.

There are some obvious signifiers to increased confidence in Bradford’s regeneration, of course, and the start of work on constructing the Westfield shopping centre in the heart of the city would be a major boost.

We have seen with the success of the City Park what positivity a good regeneration project can bring, and more of that combined with a stronger industrial and commercial sector that creates jobs into which people want to move will drive up Bradford’s reputation and house prices much better than any other market forces.