Leisure & Culture UK leisure industry offered £150m from banks for investment

• Arts and culture valued at £12.8bn, study shows
  Arts and culture turns over a staggering £12.8bn each year, despite its low level of government spending, a new analysis reveals.
• City of Culture under threat due to a lack in funding
  Some events at the UK City of Culture programme in Londonderry are under threat due to a lack in funding, BBC News has reported.
• Emeli Sande backs bid for Aberdeen to be UK City of Culture
  Emeli Sande is the latest celebrity to back Aberdeen's bid to be UK City of Culture in 2017, the BBC has reported.
British culture should be presented as a ‘commodity’
British culture should be presented as a "commodity" to sell at home and abroad, culture secretary, Maria Miller argued today in her first speech since taking up the job last year.

Leisure centres awarded huge cash boosts
Leisure centres are being transformed, thanks to a huge cash boost from Sport England, according to reports.

Leisure centre raided for second time in 5 months
Police believe a gang which caused thousands of pounds worth of damage last year are the same criminals who targeted the centre last week, according to the East Anglian Daily Times.

Work to start on £35million leisure park
A shopping centre owner is pressing on with plans to expand with a £35million development after overcoming a legal hurdle from its rival.

Rescue doubts surface in leisure centre report
Stocksbridge campaigners are to keep up the pressure to save their leisure centre in the wake of an independent report indicating “a clear community demand” for a swimming pool.

George Galloway gets behind Dundee’s City of Culture bid
Firebrand MP George Galloway, who was roundly criticised for his derogatory comments on his home city, has backed Dundee’s bid to be City of Culture 2017.