Your postcode shouldn’t decide how long you live — here's how we can change that
27 February 2025, 07:31
Many of us enjoy playing sport and getting active in the place where we live.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
A swim in the local pool, a jog in a nearby park - or perhaps playing 5 a side football or badminton at the local sports centre.
But for many adults and children living in places of high social need and deprivation, the opportunities to get active and play sport are far more limited than for people in wealthier areas. Affluence and activity levels are closely linked; less than half of adults are active in Barking and Dagenham, while over three-quarters of adults are active in affluent Brighton and Hove.
This means that health inequalities, driven in part by inactivity, have become embedded into our communities. Shockingly, your postcode can affect your lifespan by up to nine years.
That’s why Sport England has announced today we are expanding our work into 53 new places in England, in every region, to help end the postcode lottery for physical activity.
Each new place is in the top 10% of the country for inactivity, social need, deprivation and health inequality. From Barnsley to Ipswich to Nottingham to Swindon - we’ll be working in partnership with communities to get every person in that postcode active and tackle inequalities in activity levels.
These inequalities are bad for our communities; children and adults are being deprived of the physical health, mental health and social benefits of sport and physical activity. And it’s bad for our economy and society; inactivity is a driver of chronic illness which puts extra strain on the NHS and costs the public purse.
In contrast, people leading healthy lives are good for a healthy economy – saving £10.5 billion a year for the health and care system. In fact, new research has found that every £1 invested in community sport and physical activity generates £4.20 for the economy and society.
At a time when economic growth is rightly a major priority for our government, the role of physical activity must not be overlooked. And being able to play sport and get active – regardless of your postcode – is an important first step.
________________
Tim Hollingsworth is Chief Executive of Sport England.
LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.
To contact us email views@lbc.co.uk
