Swimming provides a great avenue to stay fit and healthy within our communities. Therefore, I warmly welcome the boost in support for our community leisure facilities as they are important spaces for people of all ages.

In the Spring Budget 2023, I was delighted that the Government announced new funding of over £60 million for public swimming pools in England for 2023/24. The fund will provide over £20 million in support to public swimming pool providers who are facing immediate cost burdens in the face of high energy bills, resulting in high operating pressures, as the first step to a more efficient sector. This funding also includes £40 million for longer-term capital investments in renovations to make facilities more sustainable and energy efficient and will address the immediate financial challenges facing public swimming pool providers.

This funding aligns with the Government’s objective to boost activity levels by ensuring that communities can continue to access facilities. In conjunction with this, Sport England has invested over £12.7 million in swimming and diving projects since April 2019, which includes over £9.3 million to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund, which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic.

In addition, the £4.8 billion UK-wide Levelling Up Fund will help to deliver regeneration in all corners of the country. Successful bids from the fund's first and second rounds, worth a combined total of £3.8 billion includes projects to build new swimming pools and upgrade sports and leisure facilities.

Thank you again for all of those who took the time to contact me.