£63 million for swimming pools

In his most recent budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced £63 million for public leisure centres and pools.

In his speech in parliament, Hunt said: "I have listened to representations from the hon members for East Devon, North Cornwall, Colne Valley and Central Suffolk and North Ipswich about the risk to community facilities, especially swimming pools, caused by high costs. When times are tough, such facilities matter even more."

The money will be in a fund managed by Sport England and is aimed at helping the facilities with rising energy and maintenance costs, as well as helping them to become low-carbon and more energy efficient.

Sport England CEO Tim Hollingsworth said: "Swimming pools play a vital role in our communities and are enormously important in helping people to be physically active in their daily lives," he said.

"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."

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