Over £3.5 million secured to tackle physical inactivity across six London boroughs
- New investment will continue to support community-led partnerships in Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Enfield, Lambeth, Newham and Tower Hamlets
- Funding focuses on reducing inequalities, making it easier for Londoners to be active every day
- Long-term approach puts local communities at the heart of designing and delivering solutions
London Sport is pleased to announce more than £3.5 million of investment from Sport England to support place-based partnerships across six London boroughs, marking a significant step forward in the mission to make physical activity part of everyday life for all Londoners.
The funding, awarded through Sport England’s Place Expansion programme, will support work in Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Enfield, Lambeth, Newham and Tower Hamlets, building on London Sport’s commitment to long-term, community-led change through our strategy: Let’s Move London.
Building a place-based approach to tackling inactivity
London Sport’s ‘Place’ work recognises that every community has distinct strengths, barriers and opportunities, and works with local people and partners to create the conditions for more active, inclusive everyday lives.
At the heart of this approach is collaboration. London Sport is working in long-term partnership with local organisations across sectors, including local authorities, the NHS, schools, charities and grassroots community organisations- to co-design solutions that reflect the needs of local communities.
By listening to those most affected by inactivity and amplifying community voice, these partnerships aim to build trust, empower local leadership and create sustainable, system-wide change.
Investment across six London Boroughs
- Barking and Dagenham: an investment has been secured to strengthen partnerships, enhance insight generation, and pilot new approaches. The programme will prioritise embedding collaborative structures and delivering targeted actions to reduce inactivity throughout the borough.
- Brent: investment for the The Brent Active Together partnership focuses on three priority groups: women and girls, families, and older adults, across neighbourhoods including St Raphael’s, Church End and Stonebridge. This community-led programme builds on successful local pilots and will scale what works, supporting residents to access simple, enjoyable ways to move more in their daily lives while strengthening community connection and wellbeing.
- Enfield: will benefit from funding to support partnership building, insight development and testing new approaches. The programme will focus on embedding collaborative structures and identifying targeted actions to reduce inactivity across the borough.
- Lambeth: supporting work across six neighbourhoods: North Lambeth, Stockwell, Wider Brixton, West Clapham, Tulse Hill and Norwood. Lambeth Can Move are leading local partnerships to shape neighbourhood activity, while resident engagement is informing new approaches to tackling barriers to physical activity. Early efforts are focused on inactive children and young people, older adults, people with long-term health conditions, and women and girls.
- Newham: partners will focus on establishing collaborative ways of working, developing shared insight, and identifying collective priorities to address inequalities in physical activity. A key priority will be establishing a robust governance and partnership model to guide future work and ensure decisions are locally driven.
- Tower Hamlets: the Let’s Move Tower Hamlets programme is now building on its strong foundations, using insights from local pilot projects and extensive stakeholder engagement to accelerate progress and shape the next phase of delivery.
A long-term commitment to system change
This latest investment represents a major milestone in London Sport’s place-based work, reinforcing a shift towards locally-led solutions that can deliver lasting impact.
By supporting partnerships to test, learn and grow, London Sport aims to create a framework where communities are empowered to lead change, ensuring that opportunities to be active are shaped by and for the people they serve.
Emily Robinson, CEO of London Sport, said:
“This investment is a significant step forward in our ambition to make London a city where everyone can lead active, healthy lives. Our place-based approach allows us to work alongside London’s communities and partners to understand what will work locally, leaning on that expertise to co-create solutions that genuinely remove deep-rooted barriers to physical activity.
We are putting communities at the heart of this work – not only do we want to build opportunities to be active now, but also put in place the foundations for long-term, sustainable change across London. It’s what our communities need and it’s what they deserve”.
Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Sport England’s Executive Director for Partnerships and Place, said:
“We want everyone, no matter where they live or who they are, to have the chance to be active and healthy. To do this, we’re focusing on places, towns, cities, and communities, where people face the biggest challenges. We are proud to announce a further 27 new Sport England place partnerships, in every corner of the country, bringing the total number of places we are working with to more than 90. We are committed to working with local partners and communities to break down the barriers to physical activity so that everyone has equal access to a more active life. We are excited to see what we can achieve together in Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Enfield, Lambeth, Newham, and Tower Hamlets.”
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