White, Asian and black children should be encouraged to be placed into less diverse schools to tackle growing segregation in towns and cities, a landmark report has suggested.

Academics have called on the Government to intervene after they found white British populations are dwindling at record levels and in extreme cases have halved in a decade.

Consequently communities are becoming more segregated with one area of Blackburn, Lancashire, now 95 per cent Asian.

Brookhouse Primary School in the town was named in 2013 as one of only a handful of UK schools where all children spoke English as a second language.

Academic Ted Cantle, a Government adviser of community cohesion, says by the 2021 census the polarisation will be even greater and suggests Government intervention like ensuring ethnic balance by 'placing pupils in diverse schools'.

Brookhouse Primary Schools in the town was named in 2013 as one of only a handful of UK schools where all children spoke English as a second language

The report says: 'Politicians and policy-makers need to encourage white British residents to remain in diverse areas; to choose, rather than avoid, diverse areas when they do re-locate, encouraging similar choices with respect to placing pupils in diverse schools; in other words to create a positive choice for mixed areas and a shared society'.

In Newham, east London, just 16 per cent of the population are white, compared to 33 per cent ten years ago.

The report says many towns and cities, such as Birmingham, Leicester, Slough, Luton, Bradford and London, have seen areas develop where the white British population is 'increasingly dwindling' as minorities increase.

Professor Cantle cites Blackburn as one of the most segregated towns in Britain whose Whalley Range area is now 95 per cent Asian and the local butcher admits he has never served a white Briton.

Mohammed Tabrez Noorji opened Tabrez Meat Store in Blackburn last year but has no white British customers.

He is originally from India and has been married to British-born Muslim wife Shima, 32, for 10 years. They have a daughter, six, and a son, three.

He told MailOnline: 'I don't know why I don't really get British-born white customers. I have a few white Polish customers, some of them come in regularly, but none who are from the UK.

'I've seen white people across the street, but I think that's because they are going to the pharmacy across the road, but they don't come in here. 'I hear from my family that they think white people want to move out of this area and streets with a lot of Asian communities. I don't know why that is. It's a very quiet place here.

'I like serving white people, and having a mix of people makes me happy. My daughter has white friends, I think it's good. I like it when there are white people as well. The mosque is just here.

'I serve Halal meat, yes, but I have heard that more and more white people like to eat Halal meat too, but they sell it in Tesco's and Morrisons now. They get it in the big stores while they are shopping, so I guess they don't come here.

'It is not good that we all live separately but how can we fix this problem? Asian families like to live in the same area as each other so we can support one another, but then the white people move out.

'It's not that we deliberately choose to live separately – it is just what happens. We want to live in this area because we are close to the mosques and all our families are very close to each other.'

But retired taxi driver Ian Goodliffe who appeared on Panorama while working at a 'white only' taxi firm said: 'There are certain areas where white people no longer go and the same for Asians. They lead very separate lives. There is an element of fear on both sides and then there is of course this awful racism. I hear it all the time.

'It is sometimes a gang mentality and everyone wants to stick to their own. There are whole parts of Blackburn where a white person would not buy a house but then there is the same for the Asians.

'There is a mutual distrust and the only way to change that is for people to mix, but we are at a total impasse and it is only going to get worse'.

Professor Cantle also said he met a Yorkshireman who said he was the first Asian to move into a street and within three years all the white families had gone.

'Some of those families made no bones about it - they are moving out because 'they' are moving in', he said.

Picture of Britain: This is the white British population by percentage in towns and cities in 2001 and then 2011, based on census figures

NEWHAM: In the east London borough (pictured), just 16 per cent of the population are white, compared to 33 per cent ten years ago - and the 2021 is likely to show this has increase further

LUTON: In 2001 64 per cent of all residents were white - in 2011 this dropped to 44.6 per cent

BIRMINGHAM: In 2001 65.6 per cent of the population was white, in the 2011 census this dropped to 53.1 per cent

SLOUGH: In 2001 58.3 per cent of the population was white, by 2011 it was down to 34.5 per cent

COVENTRY: The percentage of white Britons in Coventry fell from 78.3 per cent in 2001 to 66.6 per cent in 2011

BLACKBURN: In the Lancashire town 76 per cent were white in 2011, down to 66.5 per cent in 2011. Some areas are said to be so segregated that 95 per cent are now from ethnic minorities

BLACKBURN: IS IT BRITAIN'S MOST SEGREGATED TOWN? Blackburn in Lancashire was spared the race rioting which blighted other northern towns in 2001, but today the white majority and predominantly Muslim Asian minority live almost entirely separate lives. Areas such as Whalley Range just north of the town centre, where Asians first arrived and settled in the 1960s, are now almost entirely Asian-owned while other neighbourhoods are similarly white-dominated. But as more members of the Asian community move into traditionally white areas the phenomenon of 'white flight' is becoming more noticeable. As the character of a neighbourhood starts to change, white people stop buying property there. Observers point out there is no equivalent process of white people moving into Asian areas. One estate agent told BBC's Panorama that in 28 years working in Blackburn he had never sold a house in an Asian area of town to a white buyer. Some Asians complain that, despite their hopes of integration, when they arrive in a white suburb the 'for sale' signs go up and the exodus begins. Whites told the programme that Asian newcomers made no effort to integrate, and that they felt 'swallowed' up as neighbourhoods changed. Many traditional pubs in Blackburn have closed as the surrounding homes have been bought up by Muslims. Changes in local schools appears to create a tipping point, as white pupils gradually become the minority. White parents told how they had moved their children to alternative schools to give them a 'more appropriate education setting' - and then ended up moving house to be nearer a more 'white' school. Blackburn now has a 'twinning' scheme to bring together white and Asian children from different schools who would otherwise never meet. Advertisement

The research, published by Open Democracy, calls on the Government to do more to promote mixed communities, especially in light of the spike in hate crime reported since the Brexit referendum.

The study, conducted by integration experts Professor Ted Cantle and Professor Eric Kaufmann, shows that, while England as a whole is more ethnically mixed, white and minority groups are now more isolated from each other.

The report finds the polarisation is mainly in urban areas. It notes the pace of change is 'striking', with some areas seeing a decrease in the white population of more than 50 per cent between 1991 and 2011.

The report says many towns and cities, such as Birmingham, Leicester, Slough, Luton, Bradford and London, have seen areas develop where the white British population is 'increasingly dwindling' as minorities increase.

The study finds the ' trend towards isolation' is at its greatest in smaller geographic areas, such as wards.

Prof Cantle, who wrote a report into community cohesion in the wake of several race riots in 2001, said: 'The antipathy towards some communities may have been much less if we were more integrated and actually lived in mixed areas - all the evidence suggests that prejudice and intolerance is broken down by contact.

'This research shows what is happening on a local level and that is that there is increasing polarisation between the white majority population and minorities across England, particularly in our urban areas.

'This has gone under the radar, but it is time this became a national priority because cohesion is at stake.

'The focus of policy needs to shift, this is not just about minorities. Politicians and policy-makers need to encourage white British residents to remain in diverse areas; to choose, rather than avoid, diverse areas when they do re-locate, encouraging similar choices with respect to placing pupils in diverse schools; in other words to create a positive choice for mixed areas and a shared society.'