Employment minister Jim Murphy officially launched an innovative campaign to get socially disadvantaged unemployed people in Bradford back into work.

Bradford is helping to pioneer the Fair Cities initiative, which provides unemployed people with tailor-made training programmes to match the vacancies of the some of city's major employers.

Some of Bradford's biggest business names have signed up for the Government-backed scheme, including Provident Financial, Kelda, Loop and Yorkshire Building Society.

It has already provided 116 people with jobs since it began last November.

Although Fair Cities is also being run in Birmingham and Brent in London, Mr Murphy said Bradford was expected to lead the way on the project.

He said: "I think Fair Cities is being launched in the right city at the right time. The aim is to have 2,400 people employed across the three areas by this time next year and 1,000 of these will be in Bradford a very big challenge indeed.

"The impression across the country at the moment is that Bradford is a place very much on the move and there is a real determination being shown here to improve things socially.

"How Fair Cities differs from other schemes is that it matches jobs with training.

"In Bradford and the rest of the country we have families where there have been two and sometimes three generations which have been economically inactive. Hopefully this scheme will go towards ending that culture."

The £7 million project will help reduce the 22,000 people in Bradford of working age in the former Toller, University, Bradford Moor, Bowling and Little Horton council wards, who are not working nor claiming unemployment benefit.

Fair Cities in Bradford is chaired by Yorkshire Building Society chief executive Iain Cornish. He said: "It is important to allow all people in Bradford to share in the prosperity and opportunities that exist. Hopefully, now we have been officially launched, we will see more companies wishing to get involved."

One of those taking part is Kelda, parent company of Brad-ford-based Yorkshire Water. Employee relations manager Richard Neville said: "The whole scheme makes a lot of sense and it is a wonder it has not been thought of before."

e-mail: mark.casci@bradford.newsquest.co.uk