FOUNDER FOREWORD
INNOVATION IN THE FACE OF DECLINE
Let’s start with the good news: new pools are increasingly at the heart of major regeneration projects. Woolwich Waves, opening in autumn 2025, is a great example. With three pools – lane, teaching and leisure – this is a focal point in a broader £80m regeneration scheme that boasts public health and economic development goals. The first of its kind on this scale, with 482 new homes, GLL’s Better brand will operate the centre and track its impact on the lives of residents and the community. I visited St Sidwell’s Point in Exeter this year, the world’s first multizonal Passivhaus sports centre and the first leisure centre in the UK to achieve this global energy efficiency benchmark. It has cut energy consumption by an astonishing c.70 per cent, improved water quality and halved running costs compared to older pools. Then there’s Eclipse Leisure Centre in Spelthorne, which opened in October 2024 as the UK’s largest wet and dry leisure centre to achieve Passivhaus. Managed by Places Leisure and featuring three pools, this modern, sustainable destination combines energy efficiency with inclusive, community-focused programming. Lidos and outdoor swimming have also experienced a revival, with innovations including open-air cinema, Christmas Day swims, poolside restaurants, moonlight sessions, wild swimming and even naked swims (hello Shaftesbury Lido on Tuesdays!) After I hosted a panel at Elevate on what our industry could learn from dogs, I also started receiving invites from lidos running doggy swim sessions. Pinot (my dog) and I are now booked in for Dogtember at Saltdean Lido in Brighton! I was pleased to see this year’s Local Government Association report, which found 72 per cent of schools use public pools to deliver their statutory swimming lessons and 85 per cent of young people learn to swim in public pools. This echoes Community Leisure UK data, whose members report more than one million people a year learning to swim in their pools. Little surprise, then, that in this year’s audit, 96 per cent of public sector respondents told us they offer swimming lessons. Fifty-five per cent also said NHS services are delivered on-site, but this was not specific to pools, which remain broadly underused in our wider health strategy. Joint-friendly and accessible, imagine the potential if we fully joined the dots! Finally to the bad news: the continued net losses in pool provision that this report once again highlights. As our expert interviews reveal, those still operating are working hard to do more with less water, meeting demand through innovation, collaboration and determination; certainly at the London Aquatics Centre – venue for our FreeFlow Swim Conference later this year – Everyone Active has driven a 39 per cent jump in swim lesson enrolment and a 16 per cent rise in general participation. Yet there is no hiding from the fact that this remains a sector in need of far more support.
Those still operating pools are working hard to do more with less water, meeting demand through innovation, collaboration and determination.
DAVID MINTON Founder, Leisure DB
Great experiences in water. For all. For life. Our mission is to lead and serve an aquatics community to enable safe, enjoyable and successful experiences.
Find out more about the One Swim England strategy by scanning the QR code or visiting swimming.org/swimengland/swim-england-strategy/
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2023
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STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
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