Sport England announces their new Strategic Facilities Fund
This week Sport England relaunched their Strategic Facilities Fund with the objective of supplying the right sports facilities in the right areas as a key to getting more people doing sport and physical activity across the nation.
This announcement aligns with the latest Sport England strategy Towards An Active Nation (2016-2021) as well as recent Government, Public Health England and National Governing Bodies of Sport strategies and policies.
At the heart of this is the desire to encourage people to lead active and healthy lifestyles and inevitably sports facilities will play a fundamental role in the drive to tackle inactivity.
Key features of the new strategy include:
- To attract capital investment into local facilities, providing new opportunities to encourage people to live healthier and more active lifestyles;
- Encouraging development of sustainable environments capable of supporting service delivery which delivers against their local outcomes;
- Underpinning Sport England’s strategy is a Behaviour Change Model and a set of Investment Principles which will both inform where Sport England invests and how these investments are supported and managed.
The LK2 Sport & Leisure team is working on a number of strategic projects across the country, where local insight and input is prioritised to get a real understanding of what the local community wants and needs in order to become more active. Rather than looking at an individual site or sport, we must begin to consider a wider area to make sure existing and future facilities will work together – this approach is reflected in the Football Association’s Parklife Football Hub Programme.
The new strategy is an ideal opportunity to develop pro-active sport, leisure and recreational opportunities to create sustainable long term community hubs. In keeping with the Strategic Fund’s objectives, we are striving to support our clients to build the right facilities in the right places to create a sport and physical activity landscape that boosts participation and offers a better experience for those who are already taking part.
Should you be looking to develop your own sports facility, LK2 can advise and assist on a range of sports facility projects on aspects including asset transfer, grant aid, development alignment and asset rationalisation. Please contact us for further support and guidance.
For more information and to read the full Strategic Facilities Fund prospectus, click here.