More than 600 local pools face closure over Tory plans to slash energy bills support, the country’s operator has warned.
The 85% cut risks decimating school swimming lessons, threatens people’s fitness and wellbeing and puts safety around pools in danger.
Leisure centres and gyms could also be hit. Charitable social enterprise GLL, which manages more than 270 public sport and leisure centres, said energy costs have rocketed by 300% since September 2021, even with the Government’s existing price cap scheme.
Heating a typical swimming pool now costs £350,000 a year, up from £125,000.
GLL senior officer Mark Sesnan said the impact of the reduced help will be “dealt with on a pool by pool basis”. But he added: “If we can’t help to run them and the council can’t afford to subsidise them then they will be called into question.”
Swim England said four pools have already closed since the Treasury’s announcement on energy support.
Chief executive Jane Nickerson said she was horrified at the cut.
She told how the fitness swimming encourages is known to save the NHS more than £350million a year.
She added: “You also risk having a generation of children who can’t swim and the drowning risk that brings.
“I don’t understand why pools are not classed as essential or high energy users who could get extra support.”
Among those threatened with closure are the Gateshead Leisure Centre in Saltwell and the nearby Dunston Leisure Centre.
Operator Freedom Leisure blamed crippling energy bills for closing its swimming pools at Willen Lakes, Milton Keynes, and at Rye Sports Centre, East Sussex, last October for the foreseeable future.
A survey by the body Community Leisure UK suggested two-thirds of public swimming pools will be unviable by the end of 2023 without significant financial help with energy bills.
Swim England said more than 200 – 68 public as well as in schools and elsewhere – closed either temporarily or permanently during Covid.
The Treasury this week announced a new scheme to help businesses and other non-domestic users with energy bills from April. But the discount for those eligible is lot less than a capped scheme currently in place.
There are fears the 85% cut could trigger a wave of business failures on high streets and elsewhere.
Swimming pool chiefs are hoping for a government U-turn given libraries, which use less energy, will get extra help.
Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty last year hit out at pool closures.
He said: “We have to think about people’s mental health and wellbeing.
“People are struggling to deal with life and their emotions. You need access to sport and facilities.
“I know if I wake up in the morning and feel angry, I go training.
“We need that to create a happier and healthier nation.”
