THE regeneration of a prominent city centre building has been given a £1.5 million boost by West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Members of the Authority's Investment Committee approved the next stage of a grant for Conditioning House at a meeting yesterday, with one Bradford Councillor saying the work was "really needed."

The Grade II listed Victorian warehouse building has been empty for 25 years. Work is currently underway to turn the building into 150 flats and 1,500m2 of commercial floorspace as part of a development by the Priestley Group.

Overall the project will cost over £13.8 million - but £1.5m of this is to be provided by the Authority.

Final approval is expected to be granted in December.

It will be the first Bradford building to receive funding through its £7.4m Heritage Buildings fund - which aims to bring city centre buildings back to use.

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Details of other buildings that will be part of the project have not yet been revealed.

At the meeting Bradford Councillor Alex Ross Shaw said: "I'm really pleased to see this moving forward. The first line of this report says it all - it is a Grade II listed building that has been empty for 25 years. A scheme to bring this building back to life was really needed."

Calderdale Councillor Jane Scullion pointed out that re-purposing existing buildings for housing was more environmentally friendly than building new housing.