The Future of UK Leisure: Why Function Must Come Before Vanity
By Adrian Turner, Olympian and Commonwealth Medallist
I began my swimming career in a public pool. Like many Olympians of my generation, my journey didn’t start in a state-of-the-art aquatic centre or a privately-funded, high-performance facility. It began in a local authority pool, functional, affordable, and accessible. That pool wasn’t glamorous, but it was available, well used and vital to the community it served.
Since then, my career has taken me to some of the world’s most impressive international swimming facilities. I have trained and competed in venues that are architecturally stunning, technologically advanced and unapologetically elite. These facilities have shown me what is possible when sport and investment align. Yet they have also sharpened my awareness of how far the UK’s public leisure estate has drifted from sustainability, accessibility and long-term value.
Swimming pool access in the UK is at a critical crossroads.
A Public Leisure Estate Under Pressure
The closure of public swimming pools and leisure centres across the UK is no longer anecdotal: it is systemic. Ageing assets, many built in the 1960s and 70s, are reaching the end of their usable lives. Deferred maintenance, punishing energy costs and mounting operational inefficiencies have pushed many facilities beyond economic repair. A shocking 500 pools have closed since 2010 (GMB Union research 2025) with nearly half of these closing since 2020. The decline has been worsening and often in localities that experience higher than average indices of multiple deprivation.
Local authorities, traditionally the custodians of public leisure, seem to be facing unrelenting financial strain. Rising demand for statutory services such as adult social care, children’s services and housing, has forced difficult prioritisation decisions. Leisure, despite its proven health, social and economic benefits, is increasingly viewed as discretionary.
At the same time, expectations around revenue returns on capital investment have hardened. Leisure projects are increasingly required to justify themselves not only on social value but on financial performance – an almost impossible task when entry prices must remain affordable and participation inclusive.
Competition and Cost Pressures
Public leisure no longer operates in a protected market. The private sector has grown rapidly, offering premium fitness environments, flexible membership models and strong brand identities. While private operators play a valuable role, they often target higher-income demographics, leaving public facilities to serve broader, more complex community needs, frequently with fewer resources.
Operational costs continue to rise sharply. Energy remains a dominant pressure, particularly for pools, which are energy-intensive by nature. Staffing challenges from lifeguard shortages to rising wage expectations, compound the problem. The result is a widening gap between operating costs and achievable income.
Overlaying this is a shifting national policy landscape. Government spending has remained stubbornly fixed on acute healthcare and crisis intervention rather than preventative infrastructure. Yet leisure, particularly swimming, is one of the most effective tools we have for improving physical health, mental wellbeing and long-term NHS outcomes.
The Changing Consumer: 2025 and Beyond
Consumer expectations are evolving fast. Flexibility, convenience, digital integration and experience now matter as much as price. Users expect facilities that feel safe, modern and welcoming, but not necessarily ‘iconic’.
Participation patterns are also changing. Traditional peak-time, session-based use is giving way to more flexible, lifestyle-driven demand. People want facilities that work for families, older adults, rehabilitation users and casual participants, not just club swimmers or gym regulars.
Public leisure must now compete not only with private gyms but with home fitness, outdoor activity and time pressure. The challenge is not simply attracting users – it is remaining relevant to increasingly diverse communities while operating within shrinking budgets.
Construction, Planning, and Capital Reality
From a construction perspective, the barriers are significant. Leisure developments face complex planning requirements, long approval timelines and often inconsistent policy support at local level. Procurement processes can be slow, risk-averse and ill-suited to innovation.
Capital investment is the single biggest constraint. New-build leisure centres and pools now carry eye-watering price tags, driven by inflation, skills shortages, regulatory requirements and supply-chain pressures. Total development costs have risen faster than many local authority capital programmes can adapt to.
As a result, projects are delayed, downsized, or abandoned altogether, further accelerating the decline of the public leisure estate.
Facility Over Form: A Necessary Reset?
This brings us to a fundamental question: should ‘experience’ be prioritised over ‘vanity’ in public leisure design?
In my view, the answer is unequivocally yes.
Too often, facilities are designed to impress rather than endure. Architectural statements, expansive glazed façades and overly-complex facility mixes can drive capital costs up, without delivering proportional community benefit. The result is buildings that are expensive to build, costly to run and difficult to adapt.
If beauty can be achieved in leisure builds then great – but value for money has to be measured in participation, resilience and lifespan.
This does not mean compromising on quality or user experience. It means designing facilities that are efficient, flexible and purpose-led spaces that do their job exceptionally well, day in and day out.
Innovation and Smarter Solutions
There are encouraging innovations emerging across the sector. Modular construction, standardised components and off-site manufacturing are reducing build times and improving cost certainty.
One particularly promising solution is the use of above-ground swimming pool systems. At ReCreation we know the value this innovation can bring to a community. These pools can dramatically reduce capital costs, shorten construction programmes and simplify refurbishment of existing sites. They also offer greater flexibility, allowing pools to be adapted, expanded or even relocated as community needs change – experiences shared by our recent partners such as Havering Council, Lichfield Council and Everyone Active.
When paired with efficient plant systems, renewable energy integration and simplified building envelopes, these approaches can transform the economics of public swimming.
Crucially, innovation must be embraced not just in the design and build, but in procurement and mindset. Faster decision-making, outcome-based specifications and genuine collaboration between clients, operators and consultants are essential.
A Personal Perspective—and a Call to Action
Having experienced both the grassroots end of swimming in Salford and the pinnacle of elite sport in Athens, I am acutely aware of what public leisure makes possible. The next generation of athletes – and just as importantly, if not more so, healthier communities – depend on access to functional, affordable facilities.
The people of the UK are not desperate for more landmark leisure buildings: they want and need more pools that stay open, more centres that are financially sustainable and more investment that delivers long-term value.
If we prioritise outcomes over vanity, embrace innovation and align capital investment with realistic operational outcomes, public swimming and recreational spaces can thrive again.
The future of the UK leisure market will not be defined by what we admire – but by what we choose to sustain.
Adrian Turner,
Director of Client Success,
ReCreation