Should one suppose that, as no recent symphonies have been mentioned, English composers who still contribute to the medium no longer write "Second-Tier" examples?...
To me, the problem with many later composers in regards to this lumping is the "English essence" part. Without any other consideration, I would consider some of that to be the usage or influence of English (or, at least, British Isles) folk song -- not necessarily a direct quote per se, but at least some influence.
Many 20th century composers are more chromatic / sharp or more experimental, leading to a harmonic sound that is quite far away from the idioms of English folk music. As a result, I would have trouble saying, say, Peter Maxwell Davies's symphonies or Michael Tippett's symphonies as having much "English character", even though they are well thought of as composers, meet much of the other criteria, and in both cases I think do have other non-symphony output that might fits the "folksong" motif.
PMD's may on occasion have some Caledonian character which is probably off-topic under the circumstances. Perhaps.
I see plenty of contemporary British symphonies on release by Toccata, Dutton and so on - I'm sure they've been discussed ad nauseam - and notice Ken Woods is about to record some of Christopher Gunning's symphonies next month.
Whether all these are "first-tier" or not is, I would have thought, a matter of opinion.
I was much impressed recently by John Joubert's Third........................
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