Crisis and compliance: The Liverpool Non‐Discrimination Notice, 1989–1994

Abstract

Abstract Liverpool is one of a small group of local authorities to have been served Non‐Discrimination Notices by the Commission for Racial Equality. Court action was twice threatened before the City Council complied to the Commission's satisfaction. This article describes Liverpool's response to the Notice and explains it in terms of the special combination of political and administrative conditions in the city from 1989 to 1994, combined with a low priority afforded to race relations issues in the city throughout the 1980s. ‘Race’ issues had been subcontracted to a special unit and were never treated as central to the City Council's responsibilities. The Notice itself was resented and the basis for its imposition never fully accepted in the city, even though earlier research had established beyond doubt that the Council's housing allocation policies were having discriminatory outcomes. Conflict between the political leadership and senior managers in the 1980s had created defensive attitudes and the rout...