Poor standards of achievement in Bradford's schools must be addressed if the city is to build a bright economic future, according to a partnership of business leaders.

Raising standards in education - and particularly in maths and English - has been highlighted as a priority by the Bradford District Economic Development Partnership .

It has been asked by Bradford Vision to draw-up a wish list for the future of the city which will be fed back into key agencies responsible for making change happen.

And - although consultation is still on-going - a number of themes have already emerged from the partnership, which represents one of the first major efforts to involve businesses in key decisions.

The partnership - which also features representatives from groups such as the Chamber of Commerce - has identified education, transport, crime, the city centre, image and the environment among its top priorities.

Specific targets being discussed include matching education and training provision with the needs of the economy, investment in youth training and increasing emphasis on vocational courses.

There were calls for more police resources to be directed towards business crime and the importance of the city centre regeneration was also stressed.

The partnership is also likely to tell Bradford Vision that it wants to see more effort directed towards keeping professional firms in the city. One member commented that the loss of firms such as accountancy giant Grant Thornton would only encourage businesses to source their financial support from Leeds.

Partnership chairman Chris Schofield, a director of Filtronic Plc and chairman of Schofield Sweeney Solicitors, said the partnership was now gaining real momentum. The priorities are likely to be finalised at its next meeting in January before being forwarded to the Vision board.

He said there was already a clear consensus on the kind of issues which were concerning business people.

He said: "Establishing these priorities and bringing some feeling to bear on the local authority is the single most important thing that this partnership will do," he said. "Once that is done, we will be there to make sure that the things we want to happen are happening."

Mr Schofield admitted that businesses had, in the past, been reluctant to get involved in looking at wider issues surrounding economic development, often due to the workload involved.

Any business people who want to find out more about the partnership or offer comments about the priorities should e-mail Mr Schofield at chris.schofield@filtronic.com.