Whitbread sells DLL for £925m : 

Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Travel Inn budget hotel chain, has sold its David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) health club business to London & Regional Holdings and Bank of Scotland Corporate for £925m.   The DLL portfolio comprises 60 clubs in the UK and Ireland – as well as seven in the Netherlands, one in Spain and one in Belgium – with more than 370,000 members.

Nine out of ten adults take part in organised leisure:

More than 90 per cent of adults in England engaged in at least one form of cultural or sporting opportunity during the past twelve months.  According to the Taking Part report, 69 per cent of adults participated in active sport while 70 per cent attended a historic site during the past year. 

Commissioned by the DCMS in partnership with English Heritage, Arts Council England, MLA and Sport England, the report also reveals that rural inhabitants are sportier and more likely to attend and participate in arts events than their urban counterparts.

Working in Fitness Surevy's fourth year : 

The 2007 Working in Fitness survey is still live and is open to everyone working in the health, exercise and fitness industry.

For the fourth year running, SkillsActive, in collaboration with the Register of Exercise Professionals, will survey the fitness industry to get a representation of jobs in the industry, including comparisons of salary levels, job satisfaction and opportunities for training and development. 

The survey is completely confidential and is open to both members and non-members of the REPs. Running throughout July and August, SkillsActive will analyse the results and they will be reported at both regional and occupational levels, ensuring no one will be able to identify individual answers.

Muriel Bankhead, head of research at SkillsActive, said: “Last years survey revealed that employee satisfaction, staff loyalty and commitment to training was still high within the fitness industry. The areas of concern related to promotion and career development, and more notably salaries. Fifty nine percent said that low pay was a key factor that would persuade people to leave the industry; we want to know if this is still the case a year later.

Anyone completing this year’s survey has the opportunity to enter a prize draw, with the prize of £250 toward a training course to aid continual professional development.  To complete the survey visit: www.skillsactive.com/wif07.