Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the condition of park tennis courts in England.

Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. Having access to high quality facilities is central to this.

Through the pandemic, Sport England has provided £220million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres, via a range of funds including their £35million Community Emergency Fund. This includes 164 awards to tennis totalling £787,879 through Covid funding since March 2020. Sport England also invested £2,084,948 in the Lawn Tennis Association as part of the rollover of NGB national funding in 2021/22.

In January 2021, Sport England also published their strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ and as part of this have committed an extra £50million to help grassroots sports clubs and organisations affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Beyond Covid, Sport England has awarded £14,807,641 to tennis projects since 2017, 101 of which had elements of capital investment (totalling £2,474,618). Sport England also made 578 awards to multi-sport projects (totalling £38,199,899) where tennis is expected to benefit in the same period.

The Government continues to work closely with the Lawn Tennis Association and local partners to support the maintenance and development of these facilities.