community
Making it work
Innovative business models are making councils think twice about scrapping their leisure stock, reports Tom James.
OF ALL recent budget cuts, funding for leisure, grassroots and elite sport is taking a bigger hit than most. Some 28 per cent has been slashed from local authority leisure outlay in the face of austerity measures. Many local authorities and leisure trusts are anxious to update ageing leisure stock, yet the problem remains of accessing the necessary capital to improve facilities. Swimming pools offer one of the biggest
challenges for councils. Typically, each incurs an estimated loss of up to £300,000 a year. Yet swimming remains the most popular activity in the UK. No less than 84 per cent of the population lives within two miles of a pool. Balancing cost cuts, quality and revenue is tricky but this is just what’s happening in pockets of the country where savvy local authorities have used private sector know- how to attract funds, rebuild and re-conceive the next generation of leisure provision.
Enter Alliance Leisure Services whose business model allows local authorities to invest in leisure without the need for large capital outlay. Founded in 1999, the company’s first projects were in Hull where it funded three developments after the council pulled funding at the last minute. “We put in our proposal and they couldn’t say no. The developments proved a success and gave us the weight we needed to take our new model to other local authorities,” explains managing director and co-founder Sarah Watts. Alliance currently holds 90 projects in its
portfolio. It offers a design, build and contract structure for clients largely in the local authority and leisure trust sector, enabling developments to be achieved without the need for capital expenditure. Funds are accessed primarily from City- based banks to deliver the scheme, after the submission of a business model based on the requirements of the location and
community. Client funding is usually delivered over 10 to 15 years, with the client paying the bank directly over that period under a fixed payment scheme, whether monthly, quarterly or six-monthly. Projects to date include Pendle Leisure
Centre in Colne, Lancashire; an area with high deprivation and little by thew way of quality leisure provision. It was here in 2002 that Alliance showed that cutting edge fitness can be accessed by any demographic, given the right level of investment. The council went into partnership with
Alliance embarking on a £500,000 redevelopment of the centre to extend its health and fitness offering; an investment backed by the leisure trust that ran the existing site. The five-year partnership ensured not only capital sourcing but also sales, marketing and retention support. In 2005 the trust was awarded £1m from the Single Regeneration Fund to invest into its additional facility at Pendle Wavelengths,
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