First ‘plural’ towns and city outside London revealed

The research by the University's Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) shows the towns of Slough and Luton and the city of Leicester are now 'plural'. Birmingham could join them in the next seven years. The team, who also find that 23 of London's 33 boroughs are plural, say towns and cities labelled by politicians as 'segregated' are in reality the most diverse. In the three local authorities, substantial numbers of Irish, Eastern European and other White populations have rendered their White British populations, though still large, as minorities for the first time. However, the White British population is still the largest in every local authority except Tower Hamlets and Brent, where it is the second biggest. In addition, the research funded by CoDE and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds: The number of England and Wales residents who have a British national identity is six million more than the number who tick White British as an ethnicity. Authoritative indices show that 'segregation' has decreased, and that residential mixing of ethnic groups has accelerated in the past ten years Britain's towns and cities are not becoming less British.