A former parliamentary candidate for Keighley has called for an injection of up to 300 West Yorkshire Pension Fund staff into the town to boost the local economy.

Nader Fekri, who stood for election for the Liberal Democrats in Keighley in May, suggested the move at a members’ meeting of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund.

The pension fund, for employees across five local authorities in West Yorkshire, is based at Britannia House, in Bradford, which is soon to undergo a major refurbishment.

When the refit takes place, Calderdale councillor Mr Fekri is calling for 200-300 “backroom staff” to be moved out to the town, which would help to stimulate growth in the economy and possibly create new jobs.

He told the Keighley News: “I don’t see why the staff need to be based in Bradford city centre.

“Because Bradford is the accounting body for the fund, the frontline staff need to be in the city but I don’t see why the backroom staff can’t move out when the refurbishment takes place and they will have to move anyway.

“Why not have it somewhere in Keighley? When I suggested this at the meeting, Bradford councillor Chris Greaves was very dismissive of the idea, as if nobody would want to go to Keighley, which I was quite shocked about.”

Cllr Greaves, who attends meetings of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund Investment Panel and Joint Advisory Group, said no discussion had yet taken place about where to move staff when the refurbishment of Britannia House took place.

He said: “We need to provide a seamless service when that happens. It is a very major, complex operation and the backroom and frontline staff work together, it is not just like running a shop.

“I am not ruling anything in or out because a discussion of what will happen hasn’t even taken place yet.

“Where that move is made, how that move is funded, what we buy or rent is all in the future — we cannot just do it overnight.

“It is a Bradford Council decision because Bradford Council is the administering body and to start playing fast and loose saying ‘we might do this or we might do that’ will raise so many false expectations — it is far better to get the whole, clear picture at once.”

The West Yorkshire Pension Fund has more than 200,000 members from the Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale local authorities, as well as another 181 local government organisations.