“The West Midlands Combined Authority Board is making a long term, shared commitment to becoming an Anti-Racist Region.
Together, we’re making the West Midlands the best place to live, work and visit — and that means building an Anti‑Racist Region where everyone can thrive. We will use our powers and partnerships to tackle racial and economic inequality, widen opportunity for all, and stand in solidarity with communities across our region.
We are proud of the towns, cities and communities that make up our region. Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths, and everyone in every place should have the opportunity to succeed.
Our Growth Plan sets a clear ambition: to raise productivity and improve living standards for all. To achieve this, we must remove the barriers that make it harder for people to access good jobs and housing, travel easily, stay healthy and grow their businesses. Some of these barriers stem from racism, and others from poverty or place-based disadvantage, but all hold our region back from reaching its full potential.
Becoming an Anti-Racist Region means recognising race inequality where it continues to exist and taking meaningful action to address it. This is not about highlighting the needs one community over another. It is about acknowledging how racism in our society harms people, taking decisive action to remove the barriers it creates, and standing with communities when they are targeted by acts of hostility and racism, showing allyship, solidarity and leadership.
Together, we will build the evidence needed to understand inequality in our region. We will use our powers across transport, skills, housing, regeneration, retrofit and economic development to close gaps. We will work with councils, colleges, businesses, employers, and community and faith groups to widen opportunity, using our ability to convene to drive meaningful action. And we will embed Anti-Racism into how we design policy and strategy, target investment, deliver programmes and measure success.
We cannot achieve our regional ambitions of together, making the West Midlands the best place to live, work and visit while race inequalities persist. By making this commitment together, we are working to build a fairer future and a stronger, more inclusive economy: an Anti-Racist Region, a West Midlands with Opportunity for Everyone.”