On 22 February 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced how the current lockdown in England will be eased, starting with the return to face-to-face education from 8 March. The Devolved Administrations are setting out how lockdown will be eased in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along broadly similar directions of travel with varying timetables. 

We are expecting several government announcements on the plan to ease lockdown restrictions in England over the next days and weeks with an initial statement from the Prime Minister today.

The plight of UK ELT in the pandemic has been outlined in a ground-breaking article in the Financial Times.

Together with the Tourism Alliance, we are calling on the Government to recognise the devastating loss of revenue experienced by UK ELT since the outbreak of the pandemic by providing tailored and ongoing financial support to help businesses survive this crisis. 

We are asking the Chancellor to make ELT centres eligible for Business Rates Relief and associated grants, and also to extend furlough for our sector in the coming Budget. We have sent a submission to the Treasury, and are writing to Conservative MPs asking for their support.

It would help if members who live in Conservative constituencies or whose schools have a Conservative MP could also write to them in support of this campaign. MPs pay much more attention to constituents than external groups. As always, we've provided a template letter below and your MP's contact details here.