West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Huddersfield is on track to becoming the UK’s health education and innovation hub with millions of pounds and other support available to attract businesses to the town.
It already has a pioneering partnership with the local health trust and has the first community diagnostic centre on any university site in the UK with part of it now open and the rest to follow in January 2026.
The University of Huddersfield is building a National Health Innovation Campus which will eventually have seven buildings - the second is now on course to open at the beginning of 2026 - offering huge scope for health and wellbeing related businesses to move next to the training and research expertise developing within the campus and benefit from it, along with other teaching hospitals and universities across the north of England.
Liz Towns-Andrews, Regional and Business lead for the National Health Innovation Campus and board member at Huddersfield Unlimited - the organisation that champions Huddersfield’s businesses, investors and communities - revealed that several businesses are showing an interest in the opportunities in Huddersfield.
“We will have access to acute care, primary care and community care all on the same campus which is really unusual, highly innovative and which is why it’s sparking such interest among businesses looking to move here,” she said.
“Huddersfield is also ideally placed in a central spot between Leeds, Greater Manchester and Sheffield with all that knowledge and expertise to draw on alongside what we can offer here. Access to knowledge is a key driver for businesses and Huddersfield is so central to a talent pool and knowledge pool in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Manchester.
“One of the real strengths of the National Health Innovation Campus is that we will be measuring the socio-economic impacts of what we do such as how health care, preventative health care and wellbeing helps the economy as a whole by keeping people fit, healthy and in work rather than relying on benefits or being absent from work on sick leave.
“That’s really exciting some businesses and is a unique selling point for the campus.”
Liz added: “Any businesses that have a base on the campus would need a relationship with the university through research, public engagement or teaching with opportunities for student placements.”
Huddersfield is at the heart of a HealthTech Strategy for West Yorkshire with an initial £4.5m invested to fuel the growth of hundreds of healthtech companies in the region, kicking off West Yorkshire’s Industrial Strategy Zone which could unlock £220m of investment and support the creation of 2,500 jobs over the next five years.
The £4.5m funding will see 240 small and medium-sized businesses receive intensive support and masterclasses over the next four years, helping them to navigate regulations, break into new markets and overcome barriers to growth.
The support will be delivered by West Yorkshire Combined Authority in partnership with Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber.
An additional £2m investment from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Industrial Strategy Zone will support Kirklees Council in partnership with the University of Huddersfield and innovation centre 3M BIC to provide a new business incubator scheme, designed to help early-stage start-ups to get business support, mentoring, skills and workspace.
The architecture on the National Health Innovation Campus is stunning with the first building, the Daphne Steele Building, named after Britain’s first black NHS matron, now fully up and running featuring state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for the university’s midwifery, nursing, occupational therapy, operating department practice, paramedic science, physiotherapy, podiatry and speech and language therapy courses.
The university is investing £250m into the campus and has already spent £75m on the Daphne Steel building and £60m on the second building which has also brought in significant funding from the NHS as it will be home to the community diagnostic centre including MRI, CT, ultrasound and X-rays for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.
This building will have radiography on the second floor, dental hygiene and therapy on the third and a health and wellbeing innovation centre on the top floor which has been funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority with scope for businesses to have research space there.
The building is named after Emily Siddon, born in 1844 and a leading healthcare advocate in the Victorian and Edwardian eras in Huddersfield who strove to improve healthcare and equality in several prestigious roles which were usually reserved for men and was also involved in the creation of children’s homes with better conditions than the workhouse.
The third building is expected to be an integrated transport hub including car parking and electric vehicle charging points with the hope that work starts within the next 12 months. The fourth building will be a community primary care hub focussing on preventative care, mental health and a community pharmacy.
Other plans include working towards sustainability within the NHS, helping to achieve its target to become net zero by 2040 which is attracting a great deal of interest among businesses and this will potentially be the central theme for the fifth building on the campus.
The University of Huddersfield is working in partnership with several NHS Trusts including Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Southwest Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust and Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust and any companies which relocate here will benefit from all this experience.
One business that has benefited from working closely with the university since 2012 is Huddersfield company Paxman Coolers, a global pioneer in scalp cooling to help prevent hair loss during chemotherapy. The university has helped Paxman with patents and breaking into international markets.
Paxman now has plans to move to a new 27,000 sq ft centre close to the university which will include a health innovation research and digital manufacturing facility, bespoke cryotherapy research labs and engineering research and development space along with offices.
Paxman chief executive Richard Paxman said: “The fact that we are surrounded by some of the best higher education institutions in the north means we have outstanding opportunities for research and development, business growth, skills development and job creation. From an innovation perspective, Paxman is economically embedded in the region via the HealthTech Strategy for West Yorkshire.”
Liz added: “Huddersfield is at the very heart of all this and is the ideal place for businesses to relocate. Apart from the funding help, health and university expertise and knowledge, Huddersfield is set in stunning countryside with affordable housing compared to many other parts of the UK.”
One of its villages, Slaithwaite, was named the best place to live in the north by The Sunday Times in 2022.
To find out more about the opportunities contact Liz on l.towns-andrews@hud.ac.uk or phone 01484 473169.
For more information on West Yorkshire Healthtech Strategy go to https://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/media/8045/healthtech-strategy-2022-2027.pdf