Details of £160m of investment in Bradford, West Yorkshire, were due to be announced this week by the city's urban regeneration company.
Bradford's URC was officially formed yesterday, after Building went to press, and will be working with council departments and area partnerships to come up with a blueprint for the city's regeneration.

Speaking about proposals for the masterplan for the centre, John Ansbro, interim manager of the URC, said: "For a city of Bradford's size, there is a relatively low provision of offices, shopping facilities and residential areas.

We will be looking at what the city lacks and working on that."

Ansbro said that a potential merger between the University of Bradford and Bradford College might spark construction work. The merger is due to be completed by September.

Plans for Bradford's regeneration coincide with a boost to the city's council housing. Wates Construction, Bullock Construction and Lovell Partnerships are to begin work on a £175m five-year project to improve and repair council houses. The project is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the city.

Bradford Community Housing Trust is to buy the stock of 26,000 council houses for £171m in three weeks' time.

The transfer of homes from the council to the trust will be the second biggest operation of its kind in Britain. In Sunderland, 38,000 properties were revamped in a similar scheme.