sport-england-2016-17-annual-report-and-accounts

Facilities
The places and areas where people play
sport or do exercise matters. Building the right
facilities in the right places makes taking part
a realistic option for many more people and
leads to a better experience for those who
are already engaged.
Facilities, whether large or small, need to be
based on insight into local need, supported by
long-term business plans to reduce reliance on
public investment. And they’re designed to give
customers a great experience that keeps them
coming back. This customer-focused approach
underpins our Strategic Facilities Fund.
We have prioritised facilities that are integrated
with other community services such as schools,
libraries or doctors’ surgeries so the needs of
local people are better served at a lower cost.
We will direct capital investment to facilities with
a clear focus on delivering local outcomes,
robust business plans and cost-effective
operating solutions.
In 2016-17 we awarded £15.5 million of National
Lottery funding to 13 projects. This includes an
award of £1.5 million to help Stockton-on-Tees
develop its new Ingleby Barwick Leisure Facility.
The new centre, which is being partner-funded
to the tune of more than £10 million, will be
a community leisure facility that encompasses
a school, community library and inclusive sport
and play activities.
Delivering the legacy
As part of the London 2012 legacy programme
we invested more than £126 million in more than
2,000 clubhouses, pitches and halls through our
Inspired Facilities programme.
Our new Community Asset Fund builds on this
success and is dedicated to improving and
maintaining local spaces so that people are
encouraged to get active. That could mean
installing traditional pavilions and pitches, or
adapting existing spaces such as tow-paths,
woodlands or community halls. The facility may
be owned already, but if not we can provide help
with transferring the asset between organisations,
for example from local authority ownership to a
particular community group that wants to support
the sport and activity agenda in its area.
The fund is always open, so organisations don’t
have to submit their application by a specific
deadline. If they have a good idea, we want to
know and if we think it has potential we will work
with them to develop their submission. Projects
can apply for revenue as well as capital costs.
By 31 March 2017 we had received 666
applications from a wide range of organisations,
including many who are new to Sport England.
Each year, £15 million is available through this fund.
Funding football
We’re also investing £18 million a year into
a football facility investment strategy, which
we developed in collaboration with the Football
Association, the Premier League and the
Football Foundation.
This includes the Parklife football hubs programme
which will target areas with the greatest unmet
demand for football facilities. This fund will provide
significant new investment into local, accessible
pitches and changing rooms – and differs from
traditional football funding as it takes an area-wide
approach rather than one-off site support.
The first two Parklife football hubs have already
opened in Sheffield this year, with a third under
construction. More hubs are under development
and a further six will be built next year in Liverpool,
Ealing and Hounslow. Plans are also being
developed in Southampton and Eastleigh and a
small number of London boroughs. In addition,
up to 14 more local authorities will join the
programme as it enters its national phase.
These authorities and their partners will be
working up their business case and detailed
plans over the next year ready for construction
in 2018-19 and beyond.
Olympic success
Finally, our facility investment played its part
in the unprecedented success of Team GB in
the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Last year, we invested £1.6 million in a network
of elite training centres where international athletes
from many sports prepared for the Games.
This includes table tennis tables that precisely
replicated the tables that would be used in Rio,
and a £426,000 grant to support a new Triathlon
Elite Training Centre at the University of Leeds.
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