Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to increase access to affordable grassroots football facilities.

The Government is committed to driving participation in sport and physical activity in areas of greatest need across the UK. To help achieve this, we are investing £85 million in grassroots sports facilities via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities (MSGF) Programme in 2026/27, which is part of an overall investment of £400m into grassroots sport facilities through to 2030.

In England, the Programme is delivered via the Football Foundation and funds projects such as new artificial grass pitches (AGPs), changing rooms and pavilions, and floodlights. As part of this, applicants to the Programme must support football participation alongside another sport.

We provide the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our arm’s-length body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.