Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon, has today hailed £63 million worth of new funding which is being made available to help publicly-owned leisure centres with swimming pools through the financial pressures they face. This announcement, which forms part of the Spring Budget, follows Jonathan highlighting the issue during a recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting on Energy Bills Support.

The new funding will be managed by Sport England and local authorities, including Huntingdonshire District Council, will be able to apply for it for leisure centres with pools that face immediate cost pressures, including in relation to maintenance and energy bills. Speaking during the recent PAC meeting, Jonathan highlighted the threat of closure to three local District Council swimming pools, emphasised the threat to public health their closure would bring and called on this to be looked into further.

Commenting on the new funding, Jonathan said:

“Swimming pools in publicly-owned leisure centres are a vital community resource, and I know that many local residents share the concerns that I recently aired during the Public Accounts Committee meeting on Energy Bills Support.

“The Government’s decision to step in and provide over £60m in support is therefore very much one that I welcome, and it will go a long way to helping leisure centres across Huntingdonshire in the face of significant financial pressures.”

Also commenting Tim Hollingsworth, Chief Executive of Sport England, said:

“This is a significant and welcome amount of support from the Government that will offer a lifeline to many public leisure centres across England as well as help sustain them into the future.

“Swimming pools play a vital role in our communities and are enormously important in helping people to be physically active in their daily lives.

“We know how difficult the present situation is and have been working hard to ensure these providers get the support they need. We’ll now turn our efforts to supporting the process in the weeks ahead to distribute the funding made available today to ensure it goes where it is needed the most.”