A 10-Year Plan for Britain Must Also Be a 10-Year Plan for Movement.

Devolution, Health and Movement: Why Physical Activity Must Sit at the Heart of Britain’s Next Chapter

Andy Burnham’s work in Greater Manchester has long offered a glimpse of what can happen when power, ambition and accountability move closer to people and place. His latest thinking around a 10-year plan for Britain has once again placed devolution firmly in the national conversation.

The argument is compelling. For too long, too many communities have felt that decisions affecting their lives are made too far away, by systems that do not fully understand the places they are trying to serve. Devolution challenges that model. It asks whether better answers can be found when local leaders, public services, businesses, voluntary organisations and communities are given the power and responsibility to shape their own future.

But if devolution is to truly improve lives, it must go beyond infrastructure, housing, transport, skills and economic growth. It must also ask a deeper question: how do we build healthier, stronger and more resilient communities? Sports, physical activity and movement must be part of the national conversation.

A successful devolution strategy should not only measure growth through productivity, employment and investment. It should also measure whether people are healthier, whether children are more active, whether older adults remain connected, whether communities feel safer, whether people can walk and cycle with confidence, whether green and blue spaces are accessible, and whether local places are designed to support better physical and mental wellbeing. Because the truth is simple. A nation cannot grow if its people are becoming less healthy.

Poor health is not just a health service issue. It is an economic issue, a social issue, an education issue, a transport issue, a planning issue and a poverty issue. When people are inactive, isolated, anxious, unwell or disconnected from their community, the consequences are felt everywhere. They are felt in schools, workplaces, hospitals, high streets, local authorities, families and public finances.

Physical activity is not a silver bullet, but it is one of the most powerful tools we have. It supports prevention. It improves mental health. It builds confidence. It creates a social connection. It helps children develop. It supports people living with long-term conditions. It gives older adults independence. It can reduce pressure on health and care services. It can bring people together in places where trust has been lost.

Yet too often, physical activity is still treated as a lifestyle choice rather than a core part of public policy, and that has to change.

If devolution is about giving communities the tools to shape their own future, then movement must be built into that future from the start. Not as a programme bolted on at the end. Not as a leisure service, fighting for survival. Not as a nice-to-have when budgets allow. But as a serious, strategic lever for improving health, reducing inequality, strengthening communities and supporting economic renewal.

This is particularly important in areas facing poverty, poor health outcomes and limited access to opportunity. The communities that would benefit most from sport and physical activity are often the same communities facing the greatest barriers to participation. Cost, transport, safety, confidence, time, poor facilities, limited green space and a lack of local provision all shape whether people can be active.

A bolder devolution strategy must recognise that participation is not simply about personal motivation. It is about the environments people live in.

Can a child safely walk, wheel or cycle to school? Can a family afford local activities? Can an older person reach a community session without relying on a car? Do local parks feel welcoming and safe? Are leisure facilities protected, modernised and connected to health priorities? Are schools, community clubs, charities, housing providers, local authorities and the NHS working together around the same people and places?

These are not side issues. They are central to whether devolution succeeds.

Greater Manchester has shown that place-based leadership can bring sectors together around shared missions. Its work on health, transport, active travel, community wellbeing and public service reform demonstrates the value of thinking across systems rather than operating in silos. The challenge now is to take that lesson further.

Across the UK, we need a louder, more united voice making the case for physical activity as a driver of national renewal.

That voice should include government, combined authorities, local councils, the NHS, education, housing, transport, planning, sport, leisure, the voluntary sector, community organisations and responsible businesses. It should not be fragmented. It should not be timid. It should not wait to be invited into the room after the major decisions have already been made.

The physical activity sector has a powerful story to tell, but it must tell it with greater confidence. It must show how movement contributes to economic growth by supporting a healthier workforce and how sport can reduce isolation and strengthen community identity.

How active travel can improve air quality, reduce congestion and support local high streets, highlighting how access to green space can support prevention, mental wellbeing and social connection.

It must champion how community clubs, leisure centres, parks and local facilities are part of the social infrastructure of the country.

Most importantly, it must show how physical activity can help reduce poverty not only by improving health, but by creating belonging, confidence, skills, volunteering opportunities, employment pathways and stronger local networks.

This is where the conversation needs to move. Physical activity should not be seen only through the lens of sport, fitness or recreation. It should be understood as part of how we build a fairer, healthier and more productive country.

A serious 10-year plan for Britain must therefore include a serious 10-year plan for movement.

That means embedding physical activity into devolution deals, health strategies, local growth plans, transport policy, planning frameworks, education, social prescribing, community safety, climate resilience and public service reform. It means giving local leaders the freedom to invest in prevention. It means protecting the places and people that help communities move. It means shifting from short-term projects to long-term partnerships.

It also means being honest. We will not reduce health inequalities by asking already stretched communities to simply “do more”. We will only make progress if we redesign systems around people’s real lives.

The ambition should be clear. Every child should have the chance to be active. Every community should have safe and welcoming places to move. Every local area should understand physical activity as part of its health, economic and social strategy. Every devolution deal should ask how movement can help people live longer, healthier and happier lives.

This is not just about sport. It is about the kind of country we want to become.

If Britain is to be rebalanced, rewired and renewed, we must build a nation that moves more, connects more and cares more about the conditions that allow people to thrive.

Devolution gives us an opportunity to think differently. To bring decisions closer to communities. To connect health with place. To link economic growth with well-being. To reduce poverty by investing in people, not just infrastructure. To recognise that stronger communities are built not only through buildings and budgets, but through relationships, confidence, opportunity and shared purpose.

The next chapter of devolution must be bold enough to put health and movement at its heart.

Because a stronger Britain will not be created from Westminster alone. It will be built in local places, by local people, through local partnerships, with a shared belief that everyone deserves the chance to live well. And if we are serious about national renewal, then we must be serious about helping the nation move.