Responding to a report by House of Lords National Plan for Sport,
Health and Wellbeing report, a spokesperson for the District
Councils Network said:
“As this report recognises, there is an urgent need to address
inactivity caused by the pandemic. Councils leisure and wellbeing
services are integral to engaging hard to reach groups identified
in this report.
“Leisure centres are vitally important to local communities
across the country. A recent District Councils Network survey
found that 94% of leisure centres had been used in projects to
tackle health inequalities, and 79% had been used in exercise
referral and social prescription schemes.
“Councils must have stable funding to deliver on these goals,
with leisure centre finances still under significant strain. Our
previous analysis showed that one in three district councils
expected to be forced to close leisure centres due to the
devastating financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There are also serious threats to the wider services, with over
three quarters of districts having to contemplate cuts to
targeted activities such as exercise referral schemes, and many
unable to invest in needed improvements. These services will be
crucial to any plan to reduce our inactive population.
“Council leisure services can reduce disease and NHS expenditure,
and improve quality of life and life expectancy by levelling up
the health of our communities. A national plan is needed to
address this and councils stand ready to tackle the health
inequalities within our population. We look forward to working
with the Office for Health Promotion and other health and
wellbeing partners to improve the life chances of people in local
communities.”
