Quarter of local authority areas “risk losing facilities”

A quarter (24%) of local authority areas remain at risk of seeing their leisure centres close or reduce services by September, due to ongoing high energy costs and other operational pressures.

The finding comes from ukactive’s Energy Risk Survey, which collected responses from public sector operators across 143 local authority areas in the UK and from private sector operators representing a total of 579 sites.

It found that nearly two thirds (62.5%) of fitness facilities run by private sector operators are extremely likely to have to increase customer pricing in the next six months to help cope with high operating costs. Three quarters (75%) have already been forced to raise prices since October 2023.

While energy prices have stabilised to a degree, they remain substantially higher than before the energy crisis and in some cases, gyms, pools and leisure centres have seen bills rise by more than 200%.

To respond to these pressures, publicly operated facilities in 15% of council areas have introduced changes to their financial or operational models to protect against the impact of further energy price rises.

The current geopolitical situation on energy costs, increased staffing costs and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis were all listed as areas of serious, ongoing concern by operators. Support for some public sector operators came in the form of Sport England’s Swimming Pool Support Fund, announced in March last year. However, demand greatly outstripped supply, with less than 50% of applicants being successful in phase one. Many other providers, such as those in the private sector, those without pools, and operators outside of England were not eligible.

Following the publication of its Energy Risk Survey, ukactive is now calling for the Government to recognise growing public demand and help more people to access these essential services.