GPA0010

Written evidence submitted by UKactive

Introduction 

There will be no significant, positive change in physical activity levels in the UK until the Government recognises the sport and physical activity sector as an industry. Recognising it as an industry will allow credible work to take place with the sector on the interventions that can drive new investment streams, alongside systemic reform to regulation and taxation regimes, that would help transform physical activity.

Grassroots participation in sport and physical activity is key to unlocking the vast benefits and savings of a healthy population. Physical activity is the golden thread in the fight against many of our national challenges, especially in the post-Covid world. It has the potential to address myriad public health issues, including improving the health and wellbeing of our children, ensuring the health of the nation’s workforce, tackling loneliness and supporting an ageing society, and providing deeper connections within communities. The financial benefits of addressing these issues with physical activity are large and currently not utilised to the full extent possible.

ukactive is the leading not-for-profit membership body for the physical activity sector. We work with over four thousand members and partners who share a common ambition to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation by getting people moving, representing over 7200 facilities across all four nations, providing services to over 17 million people, employing over 300,000 across all its many services. These include leading physical activity and fitness facility operators, equipment suppliers, children’s activity providers, charities and the third sector. ukactive maintains communication with government departments on matters related to physical activity and the fitness sector, such as a new sporting strategy.

The role of the sector 

Grassroots participation in physical activity is key to the overall health, fitness and wellbeing of the UK. The physical activity sector is key to this, providing opportunities for more people to access physical activity and feeding into grassroots sport participation. Insight from the Moving Communities platform demonstrates the significance of public leisure centres for the physical activity levels of its customers, with 86% of people saying they preferred exercising at leisure centres compared to a more informal environment, and 77% saying they felt the staff at the centre gave them the guidance they needed to be more active. Facilities have a huge role to play in promoting physical activity, making it easy and accessible, and educating their customers on what they should be doing to stay fit. This offers the Government substantial ROI in the prevention and treatment of many health conditions, including coronary heart disease and stroke, breast cancer, colon cancer, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, clinical depression, back pain, musclo-skeletal disorders, and mental health issues. This provides the foundation for grassroots participation in activity and sport.

The economic contribution of the sector is large. In England alone, the social and economic value of the sport and physical activity sector generates £85 billion every year. Research by Sport England and Sheffield Hallam University showed that every £1 spent on community sport and physical activity generates £4 for the English economy. LGA research showed that the November 2020 lockdown alone cost the UK a loss of £29.4 million in health savings from the closure of leisure venues. Sport England research showed that NHS providers in England spent more than £900 million in 2009/10 treating people with diseases that could be prevented if more people were physically active.

On health issues, grassroots participation in sport and physical activity at facilities can offer great return on investment. Leisure facilities have potential to be used as musculoskeletal (MSK) hubs. This can help more than 20 million people in the UK suffering from health problems such as arthritis, chronic pain or a knee replacement. Successful use of leisure centres and swimming pools as MSK hubs could help reduce health inequalities and the burden on the NHS by providing local, supported, self-management options for people to better maintain mobility, physical function and reduce pain through exercise. MSK conditions can affect the muscles, joints, ligaments and nerves, and range from a knee injury to back pain and arthritis, making them the primary cause of disability globally and accounting for the third-largest area of NHS spend at around £5 billion annually. The sector can also help with prehab and rehab for many other health conditions. 66% of all prehab and rehab for cancer patients currently takes place within leisure centres. There are also programmes aiming to help the more than two million people who are struggling with the effects of COVID-19 in the UK, using physical activity in leisure centres. These types of programmes can help people get back in to work and prevent further NHS spending, providing high ROI.

The economic and health benefits of grassroots sport and physical activity are key to delivering on the Government’s Levelling Up agenda and demonstrate the value of these facilities. The physical activity sector is well placed to address social inequalities. Sufficient investment and support for the sector can help unlock these opportunities, growing grassroots participation.

Barriers to participation

The Government currently focuses disproportionately on elite sport and large-scale sporting events like the Commonwealth Games. While these types of sports and events are important, focus on these events ignores the fact that many in the UK are not physically active. It ignores the barriers to participating in activity that many people face and the importance of grassroots sport and physical activity. The following outlines some of the key barriers to participation and the policy solutions that can mitigate these:

Long term investment in local sport and leisure infrastructure

Most existing local sport and leisure stock is at the end of or beyond its operational life – these facilities are typically costlier and more carbon-intensive to operate, do not provide a modern, inclusive environment and have been slower to recover post-COVID-19. There is currently no dedicated capital investment funding available to renew and remodel these facilities and while local government has been given additional funding through Spending Review 2021, this will not be sufficient to address existing and future infrastructure and sustainability needs.

This can be solved with dedicated short-term support to provide councils with the necessary resource to mitigate rising energy costs and restore public leisure provision to pre-COVID-19 levels, as well as long-term capital investment in renewal of public leisure infrastructure to provide modern, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable facilities for local communities.

Crucially, the Government must devise a clear long-term plan for the future of public leisure. This would allow Local Authorities to work with public operators towards a common vision of what public sector leisure can yield socially, culturally, and financially for the UK. This would give the Government the opportunity to outline the return on investment it expects from public leisure and give these facilities the resources to achieve this.

VAT

The existing VAT treatment of sport, recreation and physical activity is administratively complex, resource-intensive and runs counter to the policy intent to both increase participation and maximise the contribution the sector can make to cross-Government priorities. In addition, VAT on build costs makes many new facility projects at grassroots community level unviable.

It is necessary to fundamentally reform the VAT treatment of sport, recreation, and physical activity to reduce burdens and encourage participation. This should encompass consideration of a reduced rate VAT for use of sports facilities and gyms and a review of VAT rules to better support schools to open facilities to the community. Figures from Europe Active show that when Ireland reduced VAT on these types of activities, there was an uptick in exercise at gyms and leisure centres from 11% to 13.8%. Data from Malta suggests that a VAT cut helped increase physical activity levels there as well. This result could be replicated in the UK as well.

Business rates

The business rates system is overly complex and the burdensome for facility-owning sport and physical activity clubs and providers. The current system fails to deliver cohesive and uniform relief for the sector or to incentivise investment in the development of new sites and participation opportunities.

Government policy must protect existing reliefs for community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) and charities. It must create a more consistent approach to reliefs for premises occupied or used for sport, recreation and physical activity which would reflect the wider value of these activities and incentivise growth. Furthermore, wider reform of the business rates system to include a reduction in the overall burden of business rates, increased frequency of revaluations and creation of a ‘greener’ business rate system to support Net Zero ambitions.

Funds lost from reducing VAT and business rates for sport and physical activity facilities will be gained back and exceeded by the social and health benefits associated with a more active society, including lower health spending, fewer people out of work due to physical or mental health issues, and higher wellbeing generally.

PE and School Sport

Funding for PE and school sport is too often made available only on a short-term basis, with decisions coming at the last moment, leaving schools and the wider school sport workforce uncertain as to the scale of provision they can offer and unable to plan for the long term. There is a lack of co-ordination at a national level. The approach from departments has been to invest in individual programmes and pilots, without a national strategy or national targets to join this up and drive accountability. Policy across health and education does not always align to promote physical activity. For example, in education policy PE is not a core subject. The lack of formal standardised assessment for core PE, and academic focus of school accountability measures over the last decade has contributed to a reduction in PE time on the curriculum. In health policy, the Tackling Obesity strategy rightly places a strong focus on food and nutrition but lacks sufficient acknowledgement of the important role of physical activity.

To solve this, funding for PE, school sport and physical activity should be aligned to an ambitious national strategy which joins up policy across government and improves accountability through measurable national targets to drive up activity levels, health and wellbeing across young people of all age groups. Funding should ensure support for both primary and secondary-aged children and be made available for continuing long-term investment into the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, expanding the reach and depth of the successful School Games programme, investing in teacher training to support provision of high-quality PE, sport and physical activity, targeting activity to improve physical activity participation in schools, particularly lower- income areas and those most affected by the pandemic, and renewing commitment to expanding Schools as Community Hubs programme. This can help get young people physically active from a young age, encouraging them to participate in grassroots sports and activities. As demonstrated, a more active society has a great ROI in many issue areas. Therefore, it is financially beneficial to encourage children to live an active life, involved in grassroots sports and activities.

Conclusion

The evidence presented here shows that Government action is necessary to increase grassroots participation in sport and physical activity. The upcoming Sporting Futures 2 paper needs to promote a greater recognition of the enormous potential of sport, recreation, and physical activity across Whitehall and for this to be connected explicitly to the delivery of key cross-Government priorities including levelling up, strengthening public services, economic growth, and net zero. This entails extending vision beyond upgrading football pitches and tennis courts and beyond changing individual behaviour. Additionally, the sector must be given the right tools and operating environment to succeed. This means recognising that this is a dynamic, interconnected economic sector which requires the same vision, investment, and policy reform as any other.

This must be part of a cross-Government strategy of working with the sector to improve activity levels and grassroots participation. This cannot be left just to DCMS, as the result of inactivity or a weak physical activity sector will be felt across many issue areas, including health, wellbeing, levelling-up, and education.

Finally, the long-term impact of large sporting events must include participation targets with proper consequences for failing to hit them. This can help codify physical activity goals into health policy and recognise the importance of grassroots participation. These measures will help ensure a healthier, happier society, with many opportunities for cost savings and large ROI potential.

September 2022