Commons report calls on Foreign Office to bail out soft-power flagship reeling from job cuts and asset sales Ministers should explore writing off a crippling £197 m loan to the British Council by converting as much of it as possible into “a grant or similar”, MPs have said.
The Commons public accounts committee said the government lacked a “positive vision” for the council, whose soft power value to the UK is put at £1 bn a year. The MPs called on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to set out what more it could do to support the council and its work.
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