Briefings and responses

In December 2021, the Committee published the report A national plan for sport, health and wellbeing. The key recommendations to the Government were to develop a national plan for sport, health and wellbeing, featuring a new delivery and funding structure and strengthened monitoring and evaluation metrics.

Councils in England are currently the biggest funder of sport and leisure services and facilities. Leisure operators face bills up to 200 percent higher this year compared to 2019 (the last normal operating year), with costs set to grow by up to 240 percent next year.

This briefing note on the impact of utilities on leisure services has been jointly produced by ukactive and the Local Government Association for councils and for operators running council-owned facilities.

Councils have been raising concerns about the impact of unregulated growth in the tourist accommodation sector for some time. We welcome Government’s exploration of the issue and urge Government to take meaningful action to rebalance the impacts of this growth industry.

This briefing note has been produced to update councils on the impact rising energy costs are having on leisure providers operating services and facilities owned and delivered on behalf of councils.

Councils are committed to supporting the growth of the creative industries and have a key role to play in providing the local conditions for new creative clusters to flourish.

In order to contribute most effectively, councils need earlier involvement in decisions at a national strategic level, and local government should also have representation on longer-term bodies like the Tourism Industry Council.

This review is timely and much needed in light of the challenges posed to the visitor economy by the pandemic, which has exacerbated pre-existing weaknesses as well as creating significant new issues.

Throughout the pandemic, councils have provided a lifeline to struggling hospitality businesses by distributing more than £11 billion to 880,000 small businesses in 2020. As the government implements the road map to re-opening, councils will continue helping businesses to re-open safely.

We welcome the Government’s roadmap and evidenced-based approach to reopening, and on behalf of councils we are keen to work with national government and public health experts to ensure public gyms and leisure facilities can reopen safely and as soon as possible.