Chris Holland has returned to the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford as business reporter – a job he last did 24 years ago.

Chris, (56), was the T&A’s industrial correspondent between 1976 and 1984 before moving into public relations.

In the intervening years, he has worked for a number of national organisations, including the Confederation of British Industry where he handled press and PR in the north of England, and Bradford & Bingley, where he was head of corporate affairs during the time of the building society’s flotation on the stock market.

He also worked as a public relations consultant, handling clients in a range of industries including law, finance, brewing, property and food production.

He said: “Returning to run the T&A business desk after a gap of 24 years is a bit like putting on a pair of old slippers but also offers the prospect of new challenges.

“I may be older, greyer and fatter – and hopefully a bit wiser – but I’m still eager to learn; to find out what makes my home town tick.

“I want to highlight its successes and try and focus on the positive. Inevitably, there will be failures and shortcomings to chronicle, though hopefully, these will be few and far between.”

Bradford has seen many ups and downs during the past quarter of a century and the economy wears a different face to when Chris last wrote about it.

Manufacturing dominated the local economy and provided the bulk of jobs. Bradford was still a city of wool textile mills and major engineering factories.

Chris said: “I am enjoying being a journalist again. I never lost the feel for newspapers during my years as a PR man. The skills I learned as a journalist proved very useful in advising companies how to handle the media.

“It’s great to be back and to work alongside some former colleagues and with the new generation of T&A journalists. The technology is the biggest change. It was still hot metal and typewriters when I was last here.”