We know how important the right facilities are for organisations to be able to deliver activities.
We understand the challenges you face and how daunting it can be to start developing a facility project.
This guidance sets out the key areas to consider and the wider community benefits that could be achieved, whatever the size and scale of your project.
Before you get into developing detailed designs or planning, it’s important to work out what you’re hoping to achieve, why it’s needed and when you’d like to achieve it. This will be the vision for your project.
Remember, large-scale projects can take several years to develop from an idea into reality, so it’s important to be realistic about your timescales.
Consider your potential for growth within both your activities and participant numbers. Perhaps you’ve seen a noticeable increase in participants or members or are planning to launch new initiatives which require more space and facilities than are currently available.
Keep this in mind when thinking about your project.
Bring together a team of people from within your organisation to develop your vision and drive the project forward.
Think about your participant needs, and your organisation’s aspirations for the future, to ensure the vision for your project aligns with the overall aims, mission, and vision of your organisation.
It’s helpful to conduct a review of your current facilities (if applicable) to identify what works well, what doesn’t, what needs to change, and what else is needed.
Refurbishing, reconfiguring or extending your existing facilities can often be more cost-effective than a complete new build, so be sure to factor exploring these options into your thinking.
Visiting other clubs or community groups with facilities similar to the ones you’d like to develop can be really helpful. This will give you a good understanding of how they’re operated and maintained, how often they can be used, how much income they generate, and how much they cost to run.
It can also help to identify further benefits or possible challenges you haven’t considered. There’s some free tools to help you find facilities close to you.
If you’re thinking about a new location, compile a list of things that need to be considered, such as: the maximum distance you’re willing to relocate to or build new facilities at; transport links; the space required; and the location of your existing and future participants/members.
Once you have an outline vision, start some initial conversations with your key stakeholders to get their advice, and see if they agree with your thoughts.
These could include your local active partnership, your local council sport or leisure lead officer, your sport’s national governing body(ies), or other strategic bodies.
Use the checklist alongside this guidance to assign tasks among the group, to ensure the project is not reliant on only one or two people.
Some tasks will be larger in scale and importance and may require multiple people to be working on them at once.
Organising your people into smaller teams and sub-committees, based on their tasks and responsibilities, can be an effective way to manage your project.
Keep your leadership team or main committee updated regularly throughout the process.
Outlining the vision for your project is essential to ensuring you have a good idea of: the need for it; the likely scale of it; and the impact it’ll have on your organisation, participants and the local community.
Agreeing your vision internally ensures that all your people, including your leadership team or committee, have a clear understanding of what the project will look like and their role in delivering it.
Once you’ve outlined your project’s vision, it’s important to speak to people about your plans and undertake research to ensure there is a need for it.
Get people’s views on your plans and allow them to shape the designs and scope of the project. It’s important to include current participants, users, members, partners, and stakeholders (such as local council departments, and if you haven’t already spoken to them, your national governing body(ies) and active partnership).
So too is engaging with potential users within your local community who you may be looking to target and the organisations that work with them. Think about faith groups, schools, voluntary organisations, other clubs/community groups, local businesses, and health and wellbeing groups, and neighbours of the facility.
To do this, you could attend community events to talk to people, organise specific sessions for people to attend to discuss and view your plans, or create an online survey to gather views and feedback.
It’s important to offer a number of opportunities for people to have their say and cater for different needs, rather than just relying on one event or format of engagement.
Making your facilities and activities as accessible as possible will be key to attracting new participants, so ensure you take time to understand any needs or barriers facing the wider community.
Think about how representative you are of the community you serve, and how your project can help increase participation from as many sections of the community as possible.
Think about the needs of people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, women and girls, older people, the LGBTQ+ community, people from diverse ethnic communities and religions, and people on low incomes.
Ask people about their motivations to take part in activity as well as what might prevent them from doing so.
Review this page on understanding and communicating with people for more information on how you can engage with people and understand their motivations.
Depending on the size and type of your project, you may need to apply for planning permission.
There’s a legal requirement to secure planning permission for most types of development; this includes changes of use as well as physical works.
For some types of minor development and refurbishment, your project may fall under permitted development, meaning there is no need to apply for planning permission. This will depend on the scale and nature of the work involved and can vary by location.
Make sure you review the planning guidance of your local authority and contact them to discuss your initial project concept and get advice.
It’s also important to look at local strategies, such as:
These resources are free and generally available through a quick online search.
Research and community engagement is a great way to understand and tailor your project to support the needs of your local community.
Sport and physical activity organisations provide essential community services which have a significant impact on the local community, and tailoring your project to meet local needs can enhance the wider benefits of your project and help generate new income.
For more information on how your project can impact the lives of the local community and how you can develop effective partnerships, read our guidance on creating community partnerships.
You’re now ready to start planning your project in more detail!
There’s lots to consider, including: your security of tenure; your legal structure; what the design costs may be; and how the changes you make can improve accessibility and environmental sustainability.
Be sure to utilise your project team and divide tasks up, but ensure the information is all collated and reviewed carefully to give your project the best chance of success.
It’s important to understand if you have security of tenure. Do you have a legal right to develop the site or facilities you use, such as a freehold or lease? If you’re not sure, you can read more about security of tenure here.
If you don’t have the security of tenure you need, you’ll need to speak to the landowner and discuss possible options for gaining or extending a lease. This may include exploring the option to take over a piece of land or facility, known as an asset transfer.
Funding bodies often have set security of tenure requirements, so if you’re likely to need funding for your project, you can review the usual requirements here.
As part of your project, you may also need to review or change your legal structure, particularly if you’re currently an unincorporated organisation looking to take on or develop a new facility.
You can explore the different types of legal structures available.
The benefits of becoming incorporated will mean that your committee and members are not liable for any debts, and your organisation can enter into contracts in its own right.
It’s important to create a business plan for your project to identify how much additional income your new/improved facilities will generate, and how much it’ll cost to run, maintain, insure, and replace them.
It’s good to do this before you commit to a design or apply for funding from third-party organisations.
Consider if you need to close your existing facilities while the work’s happening and what impact that’ll have on your income.
The cost of your project will depend on its scale, design, the condition of your existing facilities or site, and any equipment and professional services you might need.
After consulting on the type of facilities or project required, you can define the specification in more detail, consider the options available to achieve it, and work out how much it’ll cost.
Sport England provides detailed design and cost guidance that can help you. It’s also good to approach the NGB(s) of any sports that’ll take place at your facility for design and cost guidance too as they may have technical guidance to follow.
Speak to your people and local companies to see if anyone can support you to provide outline drawings, or costs, for free, or in return for advertising or for a small fee.
It’s important not to commit to developing fully detailed designs until you’re sure you’ve defined your project scope fully and it is likely your project could be achieved, otherwise this can be an expensive process that takes up a lot of budget and may need to be redone several times.
During the design process, consider if there are ways to make your facility more environmentally sustainable. Not only is this important for the environment, but it could help to improve your future efficiency and reduce your running costs.
Some funders offer support to help you make your facilities more environmentally sustainable. You can read more information on making your facilities environmentally sustainable.
Sport England also has guidance covering practical support on how energy efficiency can reduce running costs.
After engaging with your community, you should have a good understanding of any barriers they face to being active and how your project could make your activities more accessible.
There may be changes you could make to improve physical access to your facility like adding ramps, accessible toilets and changing areas, lighting, and clear signage. Guidance is available from:
Once you’ve defined your project’s design, to get certainty on your costs, you might need to employ a design team, including an architect, to draw detailed designs so you can obtain some quotes from local tradespeople.
Always ensure you provide a clear brief of the works you require and obtain at least three quotes so you can compare the information received and get the best value.
Employing a quantity surveyor to manage the construction process will help to ensure the project is completed within budget.
Ensure you are following the planning guidance you received at the start of this process and consider the best time to submit your application for planning (if required).
Often, you’ll need to secure planning permission before applying for grant funding. Read a step-by-step guide on making a planning application. You may find it helpful to employ a planning consultant to help you through the process.
A successful planning phase of your project can help your organisation avoid time-consuming issues later in your project timeline.
Identifying and addressing potential roadblocks surrounding legal structures, security of tenure, design features, and overall costs can reduce the number of unexpected delays and ensure you keep within your budget during the project.
It’s important to ensure that your project is affordable, achievable, and sustainable in the long term.
You will need consider pre-project costs in the design and planning phase, such as if you employ any professionals to help you, or need to apply for any permissions, as well as plan out how you’ll cover the capital and equipment costs, and any loss of income during the construction phase.
Be sure to include any recoverable or irrecoverable VAT in your project costs too!
Finding the funds to cover your facility project will depend on its scale and scope. Start with working out what your organisation can contribute either from your reserves, member/user donations, sponsorship, in-kind contributions, fundraising, or crowdfunding campaigns.
Often funders will ask for sources of partnership funding and will expect you to have made every effort to raise money towards the project.
Sources of other funding to consider include:
If you’re thinking about applying for it, find out more about grant funding.
Identifying how you’re going to fund your project is an essential part of ensuring its success. By being realistic about the amount you can raise or secure through grant funding, you will give your project the best chance of being delivered.
There are lots of sources of further advice, guidance and related content that’d be useful for you to review in developing your facility project.
These are listed below and include those that have already been referenced throughout this guidance document, as well as some case studies of organisations who’ve successfully developed their facilities.
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