Our Purpose
We are Places Leisure. We are creating active places and healthy people for communities to thrive.
As part of Places for People, we are one of the UK's leading social enterprises, welcoming over 30 million members to around 100 health and wellbeing facilities across the nation annually.
We aim to enlighten our communities about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in collaboration with local authorities, customers and partners both within our thriving community hubs and out in the wider community.
By understanding the needs of the community we aim to create behavioural changes which improve the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals and social wellbeing of the collective.
We are an award winning organisation.
In conjunction with becoming the UK's leading health and wellbeing enabler, we managed to take home three awards at one of the leisure industries most prestigious award ceremonies.
We are so proud to be named the 2023 ukactive Organisation of the Year, being recognised to have the highest level of performance, impact and sustainability out of all organisations shortlisted for the ukactive awards.
Additionally, we won the Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion Award for our Big Sister Project, and our Operations Director took home the Outstanding Leadership Award!
Our facilities
Our vibrant and attractive spaces encourage communities to play sport, socialise and engage in physical activity. Across the country our centres provide a broad variety of spaces for their communities, including:
- 59 swimming facilities
- 71 top class gyms
- 100 + group workout spaces
- 22 places to play squash
- 51 sports halls
- We even have libraries, banks, GP surgeries and pottery courses operating from our sites!
Our facilities are about more than just health and fitness. By welcoming clubs, charities and societies to exploit the space available they can become the beating heart of the community.
Our social value
We love nothing more than seeing the impact that our people and facilities have on our communities. From guiding a child through their first strokes in the water to offering a place where goals are established, safe spaces are offered and health in every form is promoted. We offer tangible rewards.
As a social enterprise we are passionate about generating social value for the communities we serve. Using the Moving Communities Social Value Calculator, which assesses the local impact on health, education, subjective wellbeing and crime, Places Leisure generated an estimated £131m of social value in FY 2022-23.
Design and build
Over the last 12 years we have designed and constructed 17 new state-of-the-art leisure facilities. We work closely alongside a dedicated team of architects, project managers, construction companies and subcontractors to offer local authorities ‘One Complete Solution’ and help bring their vision for the site to life.
Our partners
We work closely with a range of partners from national governing bodies, sporting partners and community partners to deliver a service that we can be proud of and that meets the needs of our communities.
Our communities are based all around the country. Currently, Places Leisure works with 33 local authorities, helping to create active places for communities to thrive.