The West Yorkshire Story
Our region's unique identity
Contemporary innovation
Throughout our history we have welcomed people to West Yorkshire to help build and shape the places and industries we know today. Now, we build on our past and celebrate our diversity to create a better future. We are proud to be one of the most diverse parts of the UK. We are connected to communities across the world with hundreds of languages spoken. As we look to the future, our diversity will continue to grow, and we will harness this rich tapestry of creative thinkers and passionate voices to champion change.
And it’s not just our people who are diverse, our unique places have their own distinct and exciting identities. The globally competitive city of Leeds sits alongside the vibrant cities of Bradford and Wakefield, together with lively towns, stunning countryside, and dynamic rural communities creating places that work for all. West Yorkshire boasts an array of attractions and world class cultural assets such as the beautiful Pennine Moors and Peak District parkland in Kirklees, The Hepworth Wakefield, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, vibrant market towns in Calderdale, and a Saltaire World Heritage site in Bradford.
Year after year we stage internationally renowned music festivals and celebrations of creativity, with Production Park producing the innovative staging for international artists such as Beyonce and Lady Gaga.
The region will rise to the occasion again when Bradford becomes the UK’s City of Culture in 2025 with opportunities across all our communities.
Our countryside and green infrastructure are environmental assets that we celebrate and enhance to help us tackle the climate and ecological emergency. Our collection of prosperous cities, thriving market towns and beautiful villages, the urban and the rural, provide a compelling quality of life for residents each with their own unique and magical identity. This interconnected network of urban and rural centres makes West Yorkshire genuinely distinctive.
Our diverse economic structure means we are poised to be a test bed of innovation and new ways of working. An idea can spark here, develop, then cascade to the rest of the country and beyond. We are perfectly positioned to be the key driver of economic growth not just for the North of England, but the whole of the UK. Our seven world class universities mean we attract and retain talent from around the region and around the world, creating a magnet for international businesses who flock to our region to pioneer innovations in transportation, digital, health, and manufacturing.
Our region is home to over 2.4 million people, a workforce of 1.2 million, and around 95,000 businesses.
Throughout our history we have welcomed people to West Yorkshire to help build and shape the places and industries we know today. Now, we build on our past and celebrate our diversity to create a better future. We are proud to be one of the most diverse parts of the UK. We are connected to communities across the world with hundreds of languages spoken. As we look to the future, our diversity will continue to grow, and we will harness this rich tapestry of creative thinkers and passionate voices to champion change.
And it’s not just our people who are diverse, our unique places have their own distinct and exciting identities. The globally competitive city of Leeds sits alongside the vibrant cities of Bradford and Wakefield, together with lively towns, stunning countryside, and dynamic rural communities creating places that work for all. West Yorkshire boasts an array of attractions and world class cultural assets such as the beautiful Pennine Moors and Peak District parkland in Kirklees, The Hepworth Wakefield, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, vibrant market towns in Calderdale, and a Saltaire World Heritage site in Bradford.
Year after year we stage internationally renowned music festivals and celebrations of creativity, with Production Park producing the innovative staging for international artists such as Beyonce and Lady Gaga.
Our region is home to over 2.4 million people, a workforce of 1.2 million, and around 95,000 businesses.
The region will rise to the occasion again when Bradford becomes the UK’s City of Culture in 2025 with opportunities across all our communities.
Our countryside and green infrastructure are environmental assets that we celebrate and enhance to help us tackle the climate and ecological emergency. Our collection of prosperous cities, thriving market towns and beautiful villages, the urban and the rural, provide a compelling quality of life for residents each with their own unique and magical identity. This interconnected network of urban and rural centres makes West Yorkshire genuinely distinctive.
Our diverse economic structure means we are poised to be a test bed of innovation and new ways of working. An idea can spark here, develop, then cascade to the rest of the country and beyond. We are perfectly positioned to be the key driver of economic growth not just for the North of England, but the whole of the UK. Our seven world class universities mean we attract and retain talent from around the region and around the world, creating a magnet for international businesses who flock to our region to pioneer innovations in transportation, digital, health, and manufacturing.
Our leading expertise in health, combined with our manufacturing and textiles heritage and growing digital sector means that the region has a vital role to play in the development of the health industry in the UK and beyond.
By harnessing and building on these unique strengths, West Yorkshire’s healthcare ecosystem has the potential to solve national and international challenges posed by demographic and social changes, helping people to be well and live well.
Nexus in Leeds and the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre at the University of Huddersfield build on our legacy, innovating and collaborating in energy, transport, health tech, medicines, medical devices, diagnostics, data, and manufacturing.
Using world-leading research facilities, The University of Huddersfield’s Health Innovation Campus will make Huddersfield a national centre for the training of medical practitioners.
But for all these ideas to fly, we need data. West Yorkshire is home to internationally recognised research such as Born in Bradford, bringing new insights into childhood health, while empowering young people to control their own data. Space Hub Yorkshire is driving new satellite and geospatial data markets, attracting collaborations from across the world.
Our region consistently grows and adapts. Our past is woven into our present and we reinvent our brilliant landmarks and buildings ready for the future. The Piece Hall in Halifax, once a centre of trade for the textile industry of West Yorkshire, now attracts millions of global visitors to the area with its mix of independent bars, restaurants, shops, music acts, and art exhibitions.
Key features of our economy include:
- Advanced manufacturing – specialisms in textiles, furniture, and clothing
- A fast-growing digital sector with major tech employers
- Being a global leader in healthcare technology with six government health headquarters – over 22% of the UK’s digital health jobs are based in West Yorkshire
- The UK’s largest regional finance centre with international strengths in Fin Tech including a growing financial cluster of public and private capital
- Our voluntary and community sector enables communities to understand, connect, and utilise their innate skills, gifts, and knowledge to drive solutions
Key features of our economy include:
- Advanced manufacturing – specialisms in textiles, furniture, and clothing
- A fast-growing digital sector with major tech employers
- Being a global leader in healthcare technology with six government health headquarters – over 22% of the UK’s digital health jobs are based in West Yorkshire
- The UK’s largest regional finance centre with international strengths in Fin Tech including a growing financial cluster of public and private capital
- Our voluntary and community sector enables communities to understand, connect, and utilise their innate skills, gifts, and knowledge to drive solutions
We have:
Internationally renowned universities
hosting 111,000 students and producing 35,000 graduates each year
With a unique partnership with Yorkshire universities to ensure that West Yorkshire fully benefits from the research, innovation, and talent pipeline of all our universities
Further education colleges
and a wide range of independent skills providers, including the only specialist construction college in the UK
Long-standing commitment across the skills sector to collaborate towards creating the best talent in West Yorkshire
Understanding who we are and where we want to be is key to our future success.
When the Grade-II listed Majestic building in the centre of Leeds was almost destroyed by a fire, it wasn’t left to decay, it was rebuilt and now hosts the national headquarters of Channel 4. The derelict mills next to The Hepworth Wakefield are now home to Tileyard North, one of the best recording studios and music engineer training facilities in Europe.
As a region, working together as the West Yorkshire family, we have committed to be net zero carbon, have built new infrastructure, connected our towns and cities, attracted investment, developed land, supported businesses to start-up, innovate and grow, and supported skills and training to power us through the tough times, ready for the exciting opportunities ahead.
Now is our chance to use all that knowledge to cement our status as the go-to place for business, attracting entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and creatives. To seize the opportunities to tackle the challenges we face, from the climate emergency and nature recovery, to deprivation, fuel poverty, and poor health that blights parts of our region.
As a partnership, we will lead the way, learning lessons from our industrial past to create a dynamic, thriving, resilient future. We have the knowledge, the expertise, and the ambition to use these achievements as a catalyst, backed up by our evidence-based policy development to ensure we have the right strategies in place for a brighter future.
We are home to the best and the brightest, in lockstep across the region to deliver a future-focussed West Yorkshire. Kind, hard-working, and friendly people make West Yorkshire the best place to live, raise a family, start a business, and grow old. Our story inspires us to write a new chapter for West Yorkshire, driven by our vision and steered by five ambitious missions for change. To make our region a place to do well and be well. A place to be happy. A brighter West Yorkshire that works for all.
When the Grade-II listed Majestic building in the centre of Leeds was almost destroyed by a fire, it wasn’t left to decay, it was rebuilt and now hosts the national headquarters of Channel 4. The derelict mills next to The Hepworth Wakefield are now home to Tileyard North, one of the best recording studios and music engineer training facilities in Europe.
As a region, working together as the West Yorkshire family, we have committed to be net zero carbon, have built new infrastructure, connected our towns and cities, attracted investment, developed land, supported businesses to start-up, innovate and grow, and supported skills and training to power us through the tough times, ready for the exciting opportunities ahead.
Now is our chance to use all that knowledge to cement our status as the go-to place for business, attracting entrepreneurs, investors, developers and creatives. To seize the opportunities to tackle the challenges we face, from the climate emergency and nature recovery, to deprivation, fuel poverty and poor health that blights parts of our region.
Understanding who we are and where we want to be is key to our future success.
As a partnership, we will lead the way, learning lessons from our industrial past to create a dynamic, thriving, resilient future. We have the knowledge, the expertise, and the ambition to use these achievements as a catalyst, backed up by our evidence-based policy development to ensure we have the right strategies in place for a brighter future.
We are home to the best and the brightest, in lockstep across the region to deliver a future-focussed West Yorkshire. Kind, hard-working, and friendly people make West Yorkshire the best place to live, raise a family, start a business, and grow old. Our story inspires us to write a new chapter for West Yorkshire, driven by our vision and steered by five ambitious missions for change. To make our region a place to do well and be well. A place to be happy. A brighter West Yorkshire that works for all.
#WYPlan2040