The English Language Centre

Registered charity 281859 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTRE LIMITED

The charity's object and its principal activity continues to be that of providing educational services to foreign students, including the provision of scholarships and the development of materials and methods of teaching English as a foreign language.

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£6.8m

Latest spending

£6.8m

Registered

1981

Accounts read

FY2024

Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £8,989 for the year ended 31 December 2024, with total unrestricted funds standing at £592,694. The trustees confirmed that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, adopting the going concern basis of preparation. Total reserves were reported at £6,436,980, supported by significant freehold property assets.

Automated summary of the FY2024 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: sufficient reserves to fund major refurbishment works to update the three centres and their properties (held: £593k)

“The charity has a policy of holding sufficient reserves to fund major refurbishment works to update the three centres and their properties.” — page 5

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Friend-James Limited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

Registered company of the charity Companies House 01508550

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Phil Hopkins — Chief Executive (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

CLARK, Richard Paul — director, appointed 25/03/2026on trustee list
PARAMOR, Nigel Paul — director, appointed 20/03/2025on trustee list
TIERNAN, John Edward — director, appointed 22/08/2023on trustee list
DAY, Richard John — director, appointed 30/11/2022on trustee list
KIDD, Robert Howard — director, appointed 25/02/2020on trustee list
WELLS, Katherine Joanna — director, appointed 12/11/2009on trustee list
STEWART, Richard Alexander — director, appointed 27/07/1995on trustee list
HOPKINS, Philip John Christopher — secretary, appointed 19/05/2010

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

7 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (7 freehold); recorded price paid £1.1m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2024)

Total income

£6.8m

Total spending

£6.8m

Reserves (reported)

£6.4m

Employees

Reported reserves equal ~11.4 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (100% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

Received assets from another charity (04/01/2012) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

John Edward Tiernan
KATHERINE WELLS
Nigel Paul Paramor
RICHARD A STEWART
Richard Day
Richard Paul Clark
Robert Howard Kidd

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Brighton And Hove · Cheshire West & Chester · East Sussex

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/12/2024	£6.8m	£6.8m
31/12/2023	£3.8m	£3.6m
31/12/2022	£3.0m	£2.8m
31/12/2021	£1.4m	£1.7m
31/12/2020	£1.6m	£2.5m

Common questions

Is The English Language Centre financially healthy?

Per its FY2024 accounts: The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £8,989 for the year ended 31 December 2024, with total unrestricted funds standing at £592,694. The trustees confirmed that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, adopting the going concern basis of preparation. Total reserves were reported at £6,436,980, supported by significant freehold property assets. Its FY2024 accounts were audited by Friend-James Limited.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION	1	£15k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ENGLISH ASSOCIATION.

THE ENGLISH ASSOCIATION income £245k
A S HORNBY EDUCATIONAL TRUST CIO income £326k
CENTRAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE income £300k
ENGLISH UK LIMITED income £1.5m
COLLEGE FRANCAIS BILINGUE DE LONDRES LTD income £11.1m
THE ENGLISH AND MEDIA CENTRE income £706k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
The English Language Centre	£6.8m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt
THE ENGLISH ASSOCIATION FY2025	£245k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
A S HORNBY EDUCATIONAL TRUST CIO FY2025	£326k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
CENTRAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE FY2025	£300k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
ENGLISH UK LIMITED FY2025	£1.5m	—	—	within	—	no doubt
COLLEGE FRANCAIS BILINGUE DE LONDRES LTD FY2025	£11.1m	—	—	above	—	no doubt

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.