Conclusion 10

The British Council has received loan support from the FCDO since 2020 and the current loan of £197 million was agreed in March 2024, with it originally due to mature in March 2025. The FCDO and HM Treasury agreed to extend it to September 2026, and then extended it again to its current expected maturity date of September 2027.26 A condition of these loan extensions was that the British Council should develop a turnaround plan, and this turnaround plan was submitted to the FCDO in August 2025. However, the British Council has not been able to implement the plan in full, as the FCDO had outstanding queries about how the loan would be restructured and the British Council’s proposals to close its offices in a number of countries.27 One result of this is that it took over a year for the British Council to be able to use the proceeds from the sale of its Madrid school, which took place in April 2025. Because of the terms of the loan as it is currently structured, the British Council would have had to use these proceeds to pay down its loan instead of investing in its turnaround plan. It took until April 2026 for the FCDO and HM Treasury to agree to waive the repayment requirement.28