Here is an end-of-week wrap on some key workstreams we’re undertaking for you, our members, that we want to bring to your attention. It covers a number of important pieces of information for consideration or action.
The tl;dr version follows immediately below. Please get in touch should you wish to discuss any and/or all of this further.
Planning Reform
Many will have seen the announcement this week of proposed changes to the planning system, most pertinently the proposed removal of Sport England as a statutory consultee on planning applications.
The planning system plays a crucial role in assessing the need for sport, leisure and recreation facilities and provision in local communities, protecting existing provision and ensuring new facilities are delivered where they are needed most. We therefore published an initial response outlining our concerns with these proposals and the impact it could have on places for people to play sport and be physically active.
A formal consultation is due to be launched shortly, which the Alliance will be responding to - on behalf of the sector - following engagement with members. In the meantime, we will continue to take every opportunity through our engagement with government and parliamentarians to raise our concerns over this proposal.
Spring Statement and Spending Review
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will deliver her Spring Statement on 26 March. Further to the announcement of increased defence spending, there has been much speculation about what else to expect – including potential support for certain sectors on the National Insurance Contributions (NICs) rises announced at Autumn Budget 2024. The Alliance Team will be on hand to digest the key announcements relevant to the sector.
The potentially more significant fiscal event will happen later in the year (working assumption is June), when the Government announces the outcome of its Comprehensive Spending Review, setting departmental budgets for the next three years. The Alliance will be ramping up activity in the lead-up to the announcement to demonstrate the vital importance of protecting and enhancing investment into the sector to increase activity levels and deliver across the Government’s five missions.
The first major activity will be a public letter to the Prime Minister, outlining the need for continued investment in and greater support for the sport, recreation and physical activity sector. We will be sharing a copy of the letter shortly - we would like as many of our members as possible to pledge their support as signatories. Watch this space.
Care Quality Commission Regulation
The Alliance has been working closely with members and Government on Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) plans to remove the current exemption for medical care provided at sports venues and events, and for this to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We responded to a previous consultation outlining our concerns over the potential impact on the sector and the CQC’s ability to undertake this additional function.
In order to further support our influencing work in this area, a workforce survey has been designed to better understand the demographics of medical staff working at such events and how CQC regulation may impact them and the events they cover. There are two versions of this survey – one for organisations and one for practitioners. It is estimated that each survey will take approximately 5 minutes. We would greatly appreciate your participation and encourage you to share this with relevant staff in your organisations and across your networks. As an NGB or similar, if you feel you have sufficient data for the organisational survey, please respond on behalf of your entire sport. If not, please share with your clubs/leagues/divisions. A strong response rate to the survey will provide vital additional information which will support our policy engagement.
Mandatory Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse
As trailed in previous updates, the recently published Crime and Policing Bill includes provisions to make it a legal requirement for adults engaged in certain roles with children and young people to make a report to the police or a local authority if they are made aware of child sexual abuse, either by being told about it or witnessing abuse themselves.
This implements one of the key recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and, again, is a policy issue the Alliance has been working on for some time with a view to ensuring the proposed changes are proportionate and reflect the particular characteristics of the sport and recreation sector, notably the reliance upon volunteers. The Bill’s provisions reflect many of the changes we have sought through our previous representations, including clearer grounds for making a report and more proportionate sanctions for non-compliance.
We will provide a fuller member briefing on these proposals in due course and continue monitor the passage of the Bill through parliament.
Business Rates
As previously trailed, following Budget 2024, government announced proposed changes to the business rates regime for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) premises – including premises used for sport and recreation – which will come into effect from April 2025 onwards.
For 2025-26 the existing RHL relief will be reduced from its current rate of 75% to 40%. From 2026-27 onwards, a new system of support for RHL premises will be introduced based on specific multipliers for these premises. This ongoing support will be paid for by a higher multiplier applied to larger businesses with a rateable value of £500,000 and above.
Government will announce the level of these new multipliers at Autumn Budget 2025, but it has confirmed the RHL multipliers will be permanently lower than their non-RHL counterparts. The precise impact of these changes will not be known until the multipliers are published, but it is expected that the level of support will be less generous than ratepayers have received for much of the period since 2020, when the RHL relief was introduced as support during COVID-19. There are likely to be significant additional costs for larger venues and facilities with a rateable value of £500,000 or more which will not only lose existing RHL support but will face a new, higher multiplier from 2026.
Over recent months the Alliance has made representations to both HM Treasury and DCMS on the impact of these changes on our members and more recently we submitted further information to DCMS on expected impacts and mitigation options to support discussions with HM Treasury officials. We will continue to raise concerns with Government and will provide a fuller briefing to members on the proposed changes in due course.
Welfare Reform
This week, the government trailed their intention to cut the welfare budget by £6bn. While the Government has a number of difficult decisions to make around its spending commitments given the state of the public finances, the language it uses in relation to its plans to cut the welfare budget risks perpetuating an unhelpful narrative around people with disabilities and, in turn, adversely affecting participation in and the provision of disability sport.
Ahead of the Spring Statement, we’re convening members on the morning of Wednesday 19 March to discuss the issue and agree what an appropriate response could look like from the sector, encouraging the Government to look at the welfare budget and its language regarding disability in a more nuanced way, more clearly distinguishing those who genuinely need the additional support from those who are cheating the system.
Please let us know if you’d like to attend the meeting and/or lend your support – please email Sport and Recreation Alliance Policy inbox at policy@sportandrecreation.org.uk in order to do so.
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On Sunday 2 March, thousands of people around the country put on their dancing shoes for the first National Dance Day as part of Angela Rippon CBE’s Let’s Dance! campaign, supported by the Sport and Recreation Alliance.
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