In the East of England we are very passionate about sport.

More of us participate in sport and active recreation and more of us belong to sport and health clubs than anywhere else in England (General Household Survey). We spend £1.2 billion annually on sports related goods and services and over 40,000 of us are employed in sports-related activities.

It’s not surprising when you consider that we have around 300 miles of coastline stretching from the Wash to the Thames and vast natural resources such as 15,677 miles of public rights of way at hand. Amongst the 5.4 million of us that live in the East of England are internationally renowned athletes who live, train or perform here - such as Paula Radcliffe, Karen Pickering, Dean Macey, James Gibson, Isabel Newstead and Lloyd Upsdell to name but a few.

We boast a number of nationally-important sporting facilities, such as the headquarters of British horseracing (Newmarket), the home to the World Indoor Bowls Championships (Potters Leisure Resort), a motor racing circuit (Snetterton), a nationally renowned sports centre at the University of East Anglia (Sportspark), and the Norfolk Broads. Our clubs provide representation in high-profile professional sports with a first-class county cricket club (Essex), eight professional football clubs (Norwich City, Cambridge United, Colchester United, Ipswich Town, Luton Town, Peterborough United, Southend United, Watford) and a Premiership rugby union club (Saracens) all based in the region.

So, of course it’s not surprising then that we are passionate about sport, but there’s still a lot to do. Despite the £131 million that has been awarded in the East of England by the Sport England Lottery Fund since 1995, participation rates have failed to rise significantly. The biggest challenge is to get 70% of us active, that’s 3.78 million people, by 2020. The character of East of England also provides a number of significant challenges in increasing participation.

With more than a third of our residents living in neighbourhoods of less than 10,000 inhabitants and over half our wards being classified as rural, access to sports opportunities can be severely limited. The problem also provides a major opportunity to think and act differently in the provision of sport and physical activity to rural communities. The East of England has the third largest regional economy (GVA) in the UK after London and the South East, with an £81 billion economy, and is the home to 390,000 businesses. Also, over 25% of Hertfordshire’s and 23% of Essex’s working population commutes to London each day. Accessibility to activity needs to be addressed within the work place. The culture of long working days and long commutes may not be something that can be changed overnight, but we need to influence our work places to create a healthier and more active workforce.