A leading British Muslim is planning to open 20 schools in an ambitious contribution to the government's city academy programme.

Lord Bhatia, an independent peer, said he had lined up some corporate sponsors to contribute to the £50m in private finance the project required.

Each school requires a sponsor to pay £2m towards building and refurbishment costs in return for a high degree of control over its running.

Although the government pays most of the cost, usually £22m, the sponsor has a high degree of control over schools which are regarded as "independent" within the state sector.

Lord Bhatia said £10m would be needed to pay for a central administration that would run his schools. They would be aimed at deprived inner-city areas where standards are chronically low.

Lord Bhatia, a Muslim who is involved in education initiatives in east Africa, said he wanted to create centres of excellence "open to all races and all faiths".

"We want to play our part in improving our standards of education for children of all communities," he said.

He has held talks with a school in Bradford about setting up an academy in the city.

Anxious for the scheme to be a force for integrating children of different communities, he is exploring the possibility of running some of the schools jointly with Christian organisations.

The United Learning Trust, a Christian educational charity that runs four city academies, said it was advising Lord Bhatia and would consider working in partnership with him on some of the schools.

Lord Bhatia, who is still searching for some of his corporate sponsors, denied the schools would have a faith-based mission.

However, it is understood that the project is partly designed to demonstrate the willingness of senior Muslims to support a cohesive multi-cultural society by founding schools for the use of entire communities.

Sir Ewan Harper, chief executive of the United Learning Trust and a strong supporter of Lord Bhatia's initiative, said some of the schools would have "a Muslim basis from a cultural point of view if not strictly Islamic from a religious point of view".

He said while the schools would remain open to all comers, their particular ethos would help to attract conservative-minded Muslim parents who might otherwise send their children to privately run Islamic schools.

There are more than 160 such schools in the UK and although some can boast strong academic performances others are underfunded with teaching focused largely on Koran studies.

Last year such schools were criticised by David Bell, the former chief inspector of schools, for threatening to undermine Britain's national coherence.

Research suggests that most Muslim parents would be more attracted to Lord Bhatia's multi-faith model than segregated education. Last year a survey by the Islamic Human Rights Commission found fewer than half of British Muslims wanted their children to attend schools of their own faith.

Although the government is likely to welcome Lord Bhatia's enthusiasm for setting up schools in deprived areas, no other organisation has been given permission to run 20 schools, which Lord Bhatia said was essential to enable him to exploit economies of scale.

Last night the British Humanist Association, which campaigns for secular education, gave the plans a cautious welcome, saying any move to "de-segregate has to be welcome".

However, Andrew Copson, the BHA's education officer, warned that the curriculum would have to be strictly secular: "Any school setting up in the state sector should give assurances that they will teach broad and balanced RE (including secular ethical perspectives), employ teachers that are qualified to do so, and respect the beliefs of parents and children by giving them the chance to withdraw from religious activity if they wish."