EMPTY mills in Bradford have been identified by Historic England as having the potential to create hundreds of new homes and jobs.

The report, submitted to West Yorkshire Combined Authority, has been carried out by Historic England and estate agents Cushman and Wakefield.

It was commissioned to find out how historic mills in the county could be reinvigorated to create new jobs and housing.

It identified more than 1,000 redundant mills in the county, which if brought back into use could provide up to 27,000 homes and 150,000 jobs.

As part of the report, local authorities were asked to pick two buildings to initially focus on.

The two mills in Bradford, Conditioning House and the Laconia Building, are both already in the process of being turned into flats.

Plans to redevelop Laconia have been in the works for more than a decade, and are approaching the point where work can begin, meanwhile in August last year £8.5 million plans were unveiled exclusively by the Telegraph & Argus to bring Conditioning House back into use after almost 30 years.

More than 160 flats could be built at the Laconia in Sunbridge Road, with an extra storey and new roof built on the seven-storey former wool warehouse.

The multi-million pound regeneration of the Grade II-listed Conditioning House, in Cape Street, would see the former textile testing centre turned into 130 apartments, office space, a gym and a café.

Developers, the Priestley Group, are awaiting the result of a planning application on the site which was submitted in August last year.

The report recommends the WYCA support the Conditioning House plan by offering assistance with strategy and investment, such as a £750,000 grant or £5 million recoverable investment, and offers the Laconia project £2.7 million of funding to help stabilise the building.

Bradford Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, who sits on the WYCA Land and Assets Panel, said: “Historic mills are a signature part of Bradford district’s landscape.

“We are known for our great architecture around the world so we need to find new ways of sympathetically regenerating these great buildings for modern uses.

“The report on mills is an update on a larger piece of work we have been doing with Historic England which will report back in more detail later this year.

“We’re using these two mills as case studies. They both have contrasting barriers to development which are repeated in other mills all around the district.

“Of course most of the mills around the district are not owned by the council but are in private hands. This means we need to work with them to find a solution which works for them and gives them the confidence to invest.”