Bradford should take a leaf out of Leeds' booming book of economic success if it is to get ahead, says Bank of England Governor Sir Edward George.

He was in the city to talk to Bradford's business leaders and said he had been impressed by the way in which Leeds had organised itself for business take- off.

He said: "What Leeds has done is show how you can draw everyone together to improve the flexibility of the economy, private and public service providers, banks and education people.

"That way you can address some of your own problems and Leeds has been very successful.

"Bradford can get everybody coming together and achieve the same sort of success that Leeds has.

"Come on Bradford! Show what can be done if you get the public and private sector working together.

"If they work within that context that's the best thing they can do to help themselves."

He said that improving educational standards would also be a key factor in raising economic performance.

"Someone once said: 'Education, education, education!' and it has to be an absolute fundamental part of responding to change that you have better and better educational standards, and that applies throughout the economy.

"If educational standards are failing in Bradford I would hope the whole community would come together to make an improvement.

"Bradford suffers because it does have a high concentration of industrial sectors. Textiles are caught up in this structural change - it's really tough."

As for the structural changes affecting the economy - the decline of manufacturing industry and in particular the textile industry - he said improvements could be made through increases in productivity.

In addition, firms could look for new markets such as the recent emergence of wool as fashionable menswear.

He was also keen to see full advantage taken of the fresh opportunities offered by information technology, saying: "It's part of the means by which the whole economy can improve its productivity performance."

On the economy as a whole Sir Edward was upbeat, saying the country was enjoying its lowest rates of unemployment for 25 years and low rates of inflation.