Sport England recently announced an expansion of its investment into local communities across England to help ensure that people in greatest need are able to be physically active. The organization's Place Partnerships work will benefit from a  £250 million package that  directly supports the UK government’s recent "Get Active" strategy, which set targets of getting 2.5 million more adults and one million more children active by 2030 to tackle disparities in activity levels across society.

Where a person lives and the environment around them has a huge impact on how likely they are to be physically active, and too often people in low-income communities don’t have the access to the same facilities or opportunities as wealthier areas, according to Sport England. For example, the most active place in England has almost double the activity levels of the least active place, while a person’s lifespan could vary by up to nine years depending on where they live.

Furthermore, people living in some places in England are twice as likely to have a disability or health condition than people living in other places. "If we can increase activity levels in these places there'll be significant benefits to the people living there," the organization said.

The organization will invest £250m of National Lottery and Exchequer funding into its place-based work, with £190m of this focused on an additional 80-100 places that have greatest need. An additional £35m will be invested to strengthen work with existing place partnerships, with a further £25m being made available to create a universal offer of key tools and resources, so that every area of England can access support.

To read a Sport England “Place Insight and Impact” report on the initiative, click here

To read a Health Club Management article about the investment, click here

To learn more about the UK’s “Get Active” strategy, click here