West Yorkshire has secured over £7m investment and over 200 jobs for the region’s key sectors following the Prime Minister’s trade mission to India.
Championing West Yorkshire’s business interests, Mayor Tracy Brabin visited Mumbai, travelling as part of the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer’s, UK Government trade delegation.
With joint trade already worth £1bn, West Yorkshire’s ties with India run deep. In what is the UK’s largest ever trade delegation to India, the visit has seen the announcement of hundreds of new jobs for West Yorkshire and laid foundations for exporting goods from the region, as part of delivering the region’s Local Growth Plan.
Initial investment comes from tech firm Mastek, who confirmed a £2m investment to upgrade its Leeds office, creating 200 jobs. Algorithms Software also announced a £5m investment for a new Leeds office, creating 53 jobs.
Following her previous visit in 2022, the Mayor’s tour included a visit with the Prime Minister to Yash Raj Film Studios, which has agreed this week to film three new Bollywood films in the UK. This follows the region’s recent history of Indian filmmaking taking place in Headingley, for the soon to be released Chadka Express.
Building on this momentum, the Mayor went on to participate in a roundtable at the FICCI Frames conference, to meet industry leaders and strengthen ties between the UK’s creative industries and Indian filmmakers.
Finally, the Mayor championed the region’s ‘Northern Square Mile’ of financial services companies and institutions, speaking on a panel at the Global FinTech Fest 2025 in Mumbai. There, she highlighted opportunities for Indian FinTech firms to locate in West Yorkshire and access UK and European markets.
She was joined on the trip by a dedicated delegation of three key West Yorkshire businesses – Paxman Coolers (MedTech), Brandon Medical (Medical Devices), and Group Rhodes (Advanced Manufacturing) – to help ensure direct export and trade links were secured.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said: “To be a part of the largest UK trade delegation ever sent to India was an incredible honour.
“There to champion West Yorkshire’s amazing strengths in the creative industries and financial services, we were building on the success of our previous trade missions to India, proving our worth as a global region.
“This is devolution in action: Mayors working with government to secure the jobs and investment that will put more money in people’s pockets back home.”
