Action to tackle “ethnic injustice” in Kirklees has been launched by the Prime Minister.
The borough has been chosen as one of 20 “hot spots” around Britain where it is thought there are inequalities in employment, health and achievement based on people’s race.
Most of the areas chosen are northern cities or London boroughs with large Asian populations.
Leeds, Bradford and Oldham are also included.
The 20 areas will now benefit from targeted government action to improve work opportunities for ethnic minorities.
These could include mentoring schemes and traineeships for 16-24 year-olds offering English, maths and vocational training alongside work placements.
The project comes following a probe into the impact of ethnicity of everyday life, ordered by Theresa May last year.
An audit by the Department for Work and Pensions found disparities between white and ethnic achievements across a range of more than 130 topics.
Key findings include
Employment rates are higher for white people than for ethnic minorities across the country, with a larger gap in the north than in the south (13.6% compared to 9%).
Education attainment data shows there are disparities in primary school which increase in secondary school with Chinese and asian pupils tending to perform well and white and black pupils doing less well, particularly those eligible for free school meals.
Ethnic minorities are under-represented at senior levels across the public sector.
The Prime Minister has said she will challenge society to “explain or change” disparities in how people from different backgrounds are treated.
She said: “People who have lived with discrimination don’t need a government audit to make them aware of the scale of the challenge.
“But this audit means that for society as a whole – for government, for our public services – there is nowhere to hide.
“These issues are now out in the open.
“And the message is very simple – if these disparities cannot be explained then they must be changed.”
She added: “Britain has come a long way in my lifetime in spreading equality and opportunity but the data we are publishing today will provide the definitive evidence of how far we must still go in order to truly build a country that works for everyone.”
The Prime Minister reportedly ordered the audit shortly after taking office as part of the agenda to tackle injustices in society and reduce the high amount of police ‘stop and searches’ on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people.
Nadeem Murtuja, Chair of JUST Yorkshire, a campaign group promoting racial justice, said: “This audit confirms the embedded structural inequality, institutional racism and unconscious bias that exists within primarily public sector institutions that have a statutory responsibility to address the causes and inequity in outcomes for minorities and the working class.
“What should be of particular concern is the chasm of opportunity that exists for one racial group and not for others.
“Unemployment among black, asian and other ethnic minorities is almost double that of white British adults, and the gap in the north is significantly wider than that in the south.”
Simon Woolley, director of pressure group Operation Black Vote, said: “The findings from the Race Disparity Audit presents us with a real opportunity to make transformative change in tackling persistent race inequality.
“Yes, some findings make uncomfortable reading, but unless these things are laid bare we can’t begin to resolve them.
“Over many years the Prime Minister has shown a real desire to grapple with the scourge of racism including confronting high levels of BAME Stop and Search, BAME deaths in police custody and now this.”