West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is the heart of the North and an internationally significant region in its own right.

We are one of the UK’s most attractive locations for development and inward investment, and an ideal location for businesses to thrive and expand.

Bradford was voted the best city to start a business by Barclays, and Leeds is home to the most scale-up businesses outside of London.

Our region is regularly named among the happiest and best places to live in the UK, thanks to its combination of major cities, diverse towns and stunning countryside, with excellent national and international connectivity.

Home to over 2.3 million people
1.1 million workforce
80,000+ businesses
Our £57.9bn regional economy is larger than nine EU countries
Two-hour direct train journey to London Kings Cross
Global air links via Leeds Bradford Airport
More scale-ups than any other area outside London and the South East
Seven universities, producing 31,000 graduates a year
Home to over 170 ethnic groups with over 104 languages spoken
More people aged under 20 than any other area of the North

A strong and close relationship

West Yorkshire and India have a long and close history, with £363 million of trade in goods between them in 2019.

The trade mission follows a successful visit by the Consul General of India, Dr Shashank Vikram, and senior officials from the Indian High Commission to West Yorkshire in March 2022.

It represents an ideal opportunity to build on the continued, significant investment and expansion by Indian companies in the region.

£360+ million

trade in goods between India and West Yorkshire

Recent investments

Recent investments by Indian companies into West Yorkshire include:

Clean Slate’s new partnership with Yorkshire Cricket and filming for their upcoming Netflix film "Chakda 'Xpress"
The launch of Mphasis’ new UK Centre of Excellence in Leeds
Mastek’s ambitious new graduate programme and expansion plans in Leeds
The Leeds-based UK HQ and Media Centre for Prime Focus Technologies
The UK manufacturing and active pharmaceutical ingredients site for Dr Reddy’s, based in Kirklees
Filming the Bollywood move "Gold" with Akshay Kumar in Bradford with over 2,000 local extras involved in the production

Delivering for West Yorkshire

With Tracy Brabin as the first Mayor of West Yorkshire, the Combined Authority and Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership are investing £1.8bn over the coming decades to help make our region an even better place to live, work, visit and do business.

We are working hard to fulfill the Mayor’s pledges to the people of West Yorkshire around jobs, skills, the economic recovery, transport, homes, safety and tackling the climate emergency to become a net zero region by 2038.

Her election is bringing greater spending and powers under local control as part of the UK's largest regional devolution deal. It means that decisions currently taken in London will be taken in West Yorkshire, by people who know and understand our region.