How can the UK’s inactivity crisis be tackled?

It’s National Fitness Day, a day to highlight the role physical activity plays across the UK. But this year’s campaign comes at a pivotal time, when the government admits there are “stubbornly high levels of inactivity”,when gyms, swimming pools and leisure centres have struggled with running costs, and following further falls in the amount of PE and sport being offered in schools.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) recently published a sport strategy – its first for eight years. It is vowing to drastically improve the nation’s health and fitness. “Recent years have seen unprecedented challenges for sport and our ability to be active,” says Lucy Frazer, DCMS secretary of state, referring to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.

An “unapologetically ambitious” target of one million more adults and 2.5 million more children to be physically active by 2030 has been set as part of the government’s Get Active initiative. But more than a decade after the London 2012 Games promised to “inspire a…