INFRASTRUCTURE SHAPING THE INDUSTRY
Governance: Public Leisure Management Models
PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE DELIVERY MODEL
%
%
%
% %
Trust
Local Authority
Education
Leisure Management Contractor
Other
TOP OPERATORS PUBLIC
%
GLL
. %
SLM EVERYONE ACTIVE
.%
FREEDOM LEISURE
. %
PLACES LEISURE
.%
PARKWOOD LEISURE
. %
SERCO LEISURE
. %
YMCA
.%
HALO LEISURE
.%
HIGH LIFE HIGHLAND FUSION LIFESTYLE
. %
% OF TOTAL PUBLIC GYMS
Public leisure infrastructure is delivered through a mix of operating models, with trusts representing the largest share but no single approach dominating overall provision. Local authority, education and contractor models all contribute meaningfully, reinforcing a structurally fragmented delivery landscape. Alongside this, a number of operators manage sites on behalf of local authorities, providing services across multiple locations. However, no individual operator holds a dominant position, with even the largest providers accounting for only a small proportion of total sites. This
highlights the highly distributed nature of public leisure delivery, even within outsourced and trust-based models. As a result, public provision combines elements of scale and decentralisation. While some operators bring consistency and expertise across portfolios, a signi cant share of sites remains locally managed or independently operated. This balance between distributed delivery and selective scale continues to shape how public leisure services are managed, in uencing both operational performance and the evolution of future delivery models.
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2026
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