Blog by Richard Dobson, area director for London, Morgan Sindall Construction.
The concept of Hobson’s Choice may have fallen by the wayside in popular culture, but many local government leaders probably feel they experience it on a regular basis.
The phrase apparently harks back to an innkeeper who hired out horses. In the stable yard, the customer was permitted to have whichever horse they desired, so long as it was the one nearest to the inn. The phrase 'Hobson's Choice' meant no choice at all, and it caught on, becoming part of the national lexicon.
Given today’s crisis in public sector finance, the question of how to respond to complex challenges in areas such as housing, education, health, and social care, to say nothing of decarbonisation, must create situations where choices, if they exist at all, seem extremely limited. That is the reality many towns and cities face, and yet we are still seeing many examples of local authorities finding ways to unpack difficult regeneration challenges.
Leisure facilities are a case in point. In any process where local needs are prioritised based on urgency, there might be a risk that leisure centres are overlooked as a ‘nice to have’ as opposed to being seen for what they are - facilities that can be an anchor in the community and serve as a catalyst for wider area improvement.
In fact, while leisure centres are not a statutory requirement, councils up and down the country are continuing to find ways to provide the facilities. They are doing this because they recognise the immense value that this type of social infrastructure offers. Better health and wellbeing are of course an end in itself, but a more active and engaged population is also one likely to be less dependent on other services - and better able to contribute to economic growth. Imagine the benefits of, say, reducing diabetes and social isolation.
Given what we are seeing in the market in London in particular, it does feel like we are at an inflexion point. The country as a whole has plenty of leisure centres that are reaching the end of their design life - Sport England says that almost a quarter of council sports halls and swimming pools have not been refurbished for more than two decades. Yet there is plenty of interest in taking schemes forward if the right solutions can be found.
A case in point is the Britannia Leisure Centre in Hackney, where we worked as part of the team that leveraged the land to achieve a better outcome for the community.
The project replaced an outdated facility while also creating a brand-new secondary school and sixth form, City of London Academy Shoreditch Park.
The funding solution was diverse and involved backing from the Department for Education, Sport England, plus some of the Council’s own investment. The business case also factored in gains from both the significantly reduced running costs of the new centre and increased revenue from users, which has been borne out.
Yet the single biggest contributor was an element of residential development and using part of the land for both affordable and open-market sale housing. Income from the properties then supported the funding of the new school and leisure centre on the balance of the site. The two projects were delivered simultaneously via the Southern Construction Framework. By building high instead of spreading out, we were able to ensure that the footprint of the development area was matched to the original facilities – with innovations that include the leisure centre boasting a football pitch on the roof.
Having successfully delivered other big leisure centres, including signature projects in Slough and Worthing, our team is now focused on a major project in southeast London. We are currently on-site with the new Woolwich Leisure Centre, as £80million town centre project which has at its focal point a state-of-the-art swimming complex. When it opens in 2025, the centre will host five swimming pools, a spa, a six-court sports hall, a five-a-side football pitch, a two-level gymnasium, dance and spinning studios, two squash courts, a café, a soft play, party rooms, studio spaces and a district energy centre – all on a 12,000 square metre plot of land. Due to the confined nature of the site, we have once again created stacked solution with the sports hall, gym and cardio rooms on the upper floors and the pools on the ground floor.
The new leisure centre is a key part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s ambitious regeneration plans for Woolwich. We have worked closely with the council to design and develop a centre that will provide state-of-the-art facilities that give families, young people, and adults more opportunities to get more active, including people with disabilities. As with our project in Hackney, all concerned feel they are working towards something that represents a positive choice and a scheme that will deliver real benefits in the community it serves.
Morgan Sindall is hosting a signature event on The Future of Leisure, featuring Sport England at this year’s UKREiiF in Leeds on Wednesday May 22, 3pm-4pm at the Asian & African Gallery in the Armouries Building. If you would like to attend, please sign up here: https://bit.ly/49t80kD