News of two more major residential property developments in the city centre is further welcome evidence of Bradford's potential for regeneration. The two companies involved are confident enough about the future of this city to be prepared to invest many millions of pounds in building luxury apartments and to expect to attract the sort of customers who will pay up to £400,000 for those at the top of the range.

The sort of place they envisage Bradford becoming is clearly a far cry from the rather uninspiring face it currently presents to the world. Spirals of fortune can go up as well as down. One way to change the future of Bradford is to get more people living here - people who will be well placed to take advantage of the new shopping and leisure facilities which will be on their doorstep once the Broadway development and other major schemes are completed. And the more people there are, the better range and quality of businesses the city centre will be able to attract, making it an even more attractive place to live.

It is ironic that this boom in Bradford living is being attributed, at least in part, to the success of Leeds - a phenomenon some Bradfordians envy but which is, in fact, pricing our neighbouring city out of the residential market.

So, increasingly, people who work in Leeds are looking for a Bradford address to allow them to keep more of their disposable income. With their council tax going into Bradford's coffers and at least some of their money into Bradford tills, this is a development to be welcomed.