Oxford's English language schools still not getting enough support a year into Covid

Last year, Oxford City Council chose not to offer a special kind of business rates holiday for these schools, which it has been argued they should be allowed to claim because their trade centres around a tourism experience.

Now, a director at one of the English schools has said the future is set to be challenging for his and similar schools, if they have not closed permanently already.

Meanwhile an expert in the English language schools sector has said Oxford has fared worse than other cities, with fears many schools in the city have closed their doors for good, or are now ‘zombie schools’, and are open in name only.

Peter Thompson, director of the Oxford School of English, based at Clarendon House, said the last year has been a financial challenge for his institution, which usually accepts between 1,200 and 1,400 students a year.

He added: "I think seven schools have closed in Oxford, which is clearly a very large number.

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"One of those in fact closed prior to the pandemic, but certainly the others, their closures are in part due to the pandemic.

"That represents a considerable income to the city lost. This is nothing short of a disaster."

Had his and other schools been granted access to a business rates holiday through a Government scheme called Expanded Retail Discount, he added things could have been easier.

But when Mr Thompson spoke to Oxford City Council's cabinet at a meeting last July, they said legal advice prevented them from being able to do so.

Other cities, including Cambridge and Brighton, have granted language schools the rates relief, based on different legal advice.

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Mr Thompson's school has since been offered other grant aid from the Government and city council, but said the business rates relief would have amounted to approximately an extra £25,000 over the course of 2020, which could have paid staff's wages and other ongoing costs instead of dipping into reserves.

The school director said he predicted the decision not to extend the discount would have a large knock-on effect for the local economy as it recovered from Covid.

He said: "As a business, our school contributes directly some £2m to the local economy each year. The students then will perhaps contribute as much as another £1m."

Incessant rain in Oxford. Tourists in Broad Street putting a brave face on it..Pic by Jon Lewis..09.08.2017...

Meanwhile, Melanie Butler, a journalist with English Language Gazette, has been monitoring the affect of not extending the discount to Oxford's different language schools.

She acknowledged it is difficult to say which ones have and have not closed permanently, as many still operate websites as if they are open.

Ms Butler described these businesses as 'Zombie Schools' but said her research suggested at least five schools had definitely closed.

She said: "There are five major centres of English language teaching in the UK: London, Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton, and Bournemouth.

"It looks to me as if Oxford is emerging from this the least well-off."

The journalist added: "Cambridge is probably already ahead of Oxford internationally in terms of English language teaching. Losing language schools will make it worse, as it will have an effect on the local economy, but also on the supply of students going elsewhere into further education.

"There will be international students thinking about Oxford. I don’t think it will make the slightest bit of different to Oxford University but all the other educational institutions will feel the effect."

The city council has defended its decision not to award business rates relief to language schools.

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A council spokesman said: "We were required to have regard to the guidance issued by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and have awarded relief in line with this guidance on the types of premises that were listed. Broadly speaking, this is for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. The education sector was not mentioned as being one to be supported.

"There were many other sectors to which the discount did not apply, such as supply chain businesses. We did not consider educational establishments to be ‘broadly similar’ to any of the businesses listed in the guidance."

The council also said it valued the contribution of English language schools to the local economy, but did not consider them to be primarly tourism-focussed businesses, meaning they fell outside Government guidelines for who could receive the rates relief.

The spokesman added they had spoken to both Brighton and Cambridge councils but this did not change Oxford's legal stance.

In the Budget on March 3, the Treasury announced a further business rates relief fund for businesses affected by Covid-19 outside the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.

The Government has said it will provide £1.5 billion for councils to give out using their knowledge of local businesses under a local discretionary relief scheme drawn up by the authority.

Oxford City Council is awaiting details and said it 'consider what relief or grant we can give to the education and tourism sectors and any others previously excluded'.