SOME of the city’s struggling leisure centres are to receive a cash boost from the government to help cover the cost of “eye-watering” energy bills.

Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt has promised £40 million in the 2023 budget to help the country’s leisure centres cut energy costs -  with half of the money set to be available to help pay gas and electric bills.

The pot of money, which will be managed by Sport England, will allow councils to apply for funding for leisure centres with pools, such as Perdiswell Leisure Centre in Worcester, to help cover running costs and bills.

The chief executive of Freedom Leisure, which runs Perdiswell as well as St John’s Sports Centre and Nunnery Wood Sports Complex on behalf of Worcester City Council, welcomed the money but said the move was “very much the first step” in paying the not-for-profit trust’s “eye-watering” bills.

Freedom Leisure chief executive Ivan Horsfall Turner said: “We will continue to work with our industry and local authority partners to put swimming pools on a more sustainable and long-term footing.

“We have campaigned hard recently with other industry bodies for this extra funding and are pleased that the government has finally taken notice and recognised the challenging situation felt by the sector and the value of leisure centres and swimming pools to local communities.”

At the start of the year, Mr Horsfall Turner warned that some facilities could be forced to close if ministers did not reverse the decision to exclude leisure centre operators from government support to pay rocketing energy bills – saying he was “extremely disappointed and frustrated” by the snub.

Worcester City Council agreed to increase prices by an average of nine per cent from April to boost funds, following a request from Freedom Leisure, as well as hand over £550,000 for energy-efficiency work and £315,000 to help Freedom Leisure pay its energy bills in the next 12 months.

The council also agreed to cut opening hours at the leisure centres at Nunnery Wood to cut costs.

Last year, Worcester City Council agreed to hand over up to £255,000 of taxpayers’ money to Freedom Leisure to help cover the soaring cost of gas and electricity.

The deal was sealed despite criticism from councillors who labelled the outsourced contract with Freedom Leisure a “money pit” and called for a ‘serious review’ into future agreements.