This report by Sport England explores their current, collective understanding of how the cost of living impacts people's activity levels and shares some ideas on how to help people get, or remain, active at low or no cost. Through a qualitative online community consultation and various surveys, authors established 4 key actionable points for partners and organisations who work in the sport and physical activity sector: (1) Focus on the experience to support motivation, (2) Make accessing activities as simple as possible, (3) Link people up with local activities and (4) Actively communicate flexible payment options.
Mainly, contributors found that almost half of adults say that they have less disposable income today compared to a year ago. They also discovered that 2 in 5 (40%) people said the cost-of-living increase was having a ‘negative impact’ on their ability to be active in August 2022, up from a third of people in March 2022 (an increase of 6.7%). The research shows the need to remain agile to changes to the context such as new government measures or energy caps and continue to update our understanding on the effects the cost of living has on physical activity levels.
