Bradford Council is continuing its due diligence programme with the Government over a £35 million growth zone project which will see a rate relief scheme in the city centre.

The scheme would see £17.2 million from the Council and £17.6 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) go towards a £12 million rate relief fund for the city centre, and a £12.6 million similar fund for tenants in the proposed Westfield shopping centre in Broadway.

Councillor David Green (pictured), Bradford Council’s executive member for regeneration and culture, said the Council’s money for its city centre scheme would only go through once the Government had signed off its share.

He said: “We are in the process of due diligence with the Government and I expect that will take a little while longer, not because of delays from the Council’s part, but just because of the process we have to go through.

“We are trying to get it resolved as soon as possible, because clearly we want the scheme up and running to attract new businesses as soon as we can. What I said to the Government was, this is a joint scheme so there’s link-up between the two, so we really need the Government to sign off on their allocation so we can push ahead together.

“They are inter-dependent in one sense, but clearly it’s part of the bigger overall scheme, so hopefully the Government will provide their allocation as soon as possible, but my guess is that given the recent coverage of RGF grants and the number of jobs created, they will be looking closely at this round of bids.”

RGF money funds the Westfield rate relief scheme and must be spent by 2016, so is dependant on the centre being up and running.