Our commitment to anti-racism

Liverpool is proud of being a welcoming city that celebrates its diverse communities. We want it to be a more inclusive and equal city and are continually striving to tackle inequalities, whilst promoting and celebrating the city’s distinct identities and our many communities.

Liverpool has a long history of multiculturalism and we recognise the prominent historic role that the city had in the transatlantic trade of enslaved people which impacted on millions of lives and continues to leave a legacy in our communities.
 
The city is home to Europe's oldest Chinese community, Britain's oldest Black community, the first mosque to be built in the UK and one of the oldest Jewish communities in Britain. It has welcomed successive waves of immigration through its port from Ireland, the Middle East and Mediterranean and more recently, from newer communities in Eastern and Central Europe. 
 
We recognise that racism is a significant challenge that continues to have profound impacts on our city and in our communities and that it is no longer enough for us to tackle inequalities, we must be actively anti-racist.

Our priorities

Our priorities are to:

• Display anti-racist leadership by taking a zero-tolerance approach to racism.
• Take active steps so that our leadership more reflects Liverpool’s racial diversity, demonstrates accountability, and delivers visible, measurable action.
• Foster belonging and honour Liverpool’s history.
• Counter misinformation and challenge racial misinformation in real time.
• Ensure our organisation is racially literate and promote racial-literacy across the city.
• Ensure our recruitment and progression processes are fair and transparent.
• Improve opportunities for racially diverse businesses and community organisations.
• Provide services that are safe, inclusive and culturally competent.

The anti-racism strategy and action plan are awaiting approval at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 18th November at 5pm. You can view both these documents on the meeting’s agenda page on the Councillors’ website. For the links to the documents, please scroll down the page to item 7 on the agenda under the subheading ‘Cabinet recommendations’.

Engaging partners on anti-racism

We are committed to becoming an anti-racist organisation and in our leadership role, we want to promote an anti-racist approach as widely as possible across all aspects of life in the city.

We are working with key organisations in the city, through the Liverpool Strategic Partnership, to develop an anti-racism strategy for Liverpool and promote the council’s ‘This is Liverpool’ campaign. 
 
This page will be updated with progress updates on our anti-racism work.