Following the publication of the annual Moving Communities report from Sport England and 4global, the CEO of ukactive, Huw Edwards, welcomes the reports findings and sets out the opportunity to realise the full potential of the sector and its facilities.
In her recent interview on ‘The Rest is Politics: Leading’ podcast, the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, described how the Prime Minister set out at their first Cabinet meeting that the Government’s emphasis must be on delivery, that this is the watch word, and “write it on the wall in your office”.
The new Secretary of State is no doubt assessing how her new portfolio can deliver effectively against the new manifesto missions set by the Government – especially around economic growth and health – while also working out how to deliver the sustainable growth and development sought by the sectors for which she now has accountability. The future role of facilities will be an interesting barometer regarding both questions.
Today’s Moving Communities report from Sport England comes at an important time in the discussion around the importance and value of facilities within communities. The findings in the report are unequivocal, with public leisure facilities being a major driver of physical activity across all ages and backgrounds, especially supporting people from lower-income backgrounds.
This report follows on from the debut Private Sector benchmarking report from ukactive and 4Global which showed the size and pace of growth being driven by private operators, providing accessible services to an ever-growing number of high streets and towns, and supporting our nation’s health and wellbeing.
So, Lisa Nandy should be buoyed by the fact that she’s inheriting a sector that is driving sizeable improvements in the nation’s health and is the nation physical activity engine room. A visit to any gym, pool, or leisure centre will see services and programmes that are maintaining good health or supporting recovery from poor health. This is reinforced by the public’s motivations for using these facilities, with an ever-growing number of people seeking support in managing issues of anxiety or depression, health conditions, or making connections in their local community.
The task now for the Secretary of State, working with her colleagues across Government, is to take the current position and drive further progress. And there are a number of areas that can support this.
Firstly, optimism should be laced with some caution. Operating costs – driven by increased staff costs, utilities, and the legacy of the pandemic – remain a notable issue. The Government should work with the industry to understand fully the continued operating pressures that facilities face and consider how they can support alleviating some of these pressure through the levers they have at their disposal. This can and should be a combination of both driving demand and easing tax and regulatory burdens.
Secondly, the new Government should endorse the developing work between the LGA, Sport England and ukactive to ensure our full facility estate is understood as a whole. Public sector, local authority provision is important, yes, but the mistake we cannot make is to exclusively see public service as just public sector. The growth of the private sector is just as important to any ambitions the Government has to improve our national health and grow the economy. You just have to look at the social value measured by The Gym Group whose members generated a social value of £890m in 2023. Government – both at central and local level – must understand, acknowledge, and support the growth and development of both public and private operators alike.
Thirdly, this naturally leads to investment. Our new Government should work with the industry to assess how more private investment can flow into facilities. Both the development of new facilities and the renewal of old facilities will require money, and the current reality is that this will not come from the Exchequer. The Government should consider how its new Wealth Fund can support the health and wellbeing infrastructure of communities.
Finally, driving facility integration with the NHS. There is an incredible opportunity for the new Government to unlock the full potential of these facilities to take pressure off the NHS by deploying them as part of their Health Mission. As Arianna Huffington has said, health is what happens between visits to the doctor, so the new Government should quickly move to action the £13m investment carried over from the 2023 Budget into the successful MSK (musculoskeletal) Hub model that is already in 94 sites and would take the model to real scale. Furthermore, they should endorse the project being driven by ukactive Chair Mike Farrar to integrate sport, recreation, and physical activity within the plans of Integrated Care Boards. This could have a positive impact on how community services and programmes are fully utilised.
Delivery defines all governments and we know this Government will be seeking to deliver its vision of national renewal against an acutely challenging financial backdrop. It will benefit hugely from quickly concluding that sport and physical activity can support both improved health and aid economic growth, and then deploying our sector’s services, programmes and workforce to their fullest in that mission. The facilities we have in the heart of our communities will be integral to this.
To access the full report, click here.
More People More Active More Often
