Leisure Industry News - December 2025

December brings a mix of resilience, expansion, and community-focused investment across the UK leisure sector.

Holiday Park operators are reinforcing their portfolios through new acquisitions and funding, while the hotel market continues to evolve with ambitious refurbishment plans and fresh brands entering key cities. Local leisure centres remain a priority, with emergency support and major redevelopment projects helping protect vital community facilities. 

As universities secure funding for upgraded teaching spaces and new fitness sites prepare to open, the month highlights a sector balancing immediate pressures with long-term ambition. 

Explore the key developments shaping December’s leisure landscape...

• Noble Court Holiday Park in Narberth is under new ownership after the sites previous owners, Celtic Holiday Parks, went into administration in June. An unnamed expert holiday park company has recently completed the purchase, and the park has continued to operate as normal with all employees retained throughout the transition.

• Harrison Holidays, a Preston-based company, has secured a seven-figure funding package from HSBC UK to expand its Scottish portfolio. Some of the capital was used to acquire the Ardlui Holiday Home Park, part of an 11-acre estate on Loch Lomond featuring 96 licensed units.

• The owners of Woodlands Golf and Country Club, located northeast of Bristol, have confirmed the site's potential closure to allow for the construction of thousands of homes. The owners support the housing development, but a planning company spokesman indicated that at least some of the course would likely remain open for over a decade if the proposals are finalised.

• Waitrose is seeking permission to open its private sports and leisure club in Bracknell to the public due to significant underutilisation by its own staff. Although all 2,700 campus employees are eligible to use the club, current membership has dropped to 620, with only about 100 people using the facilities weekly, prompting the supermarket to file a public gym planning application.

• Whitbread PLC, owner of Premier Inn, has made a significant freehold acquisition of Victory House in Central London to expand its network of budget hotels. The company plans to convert the 45,000 sq ft office building, which will be vacant in spring 2026, into an approximately 200-bedroom hub by Premier Inn hotel, subject to planning approval.

• New British hotel group Oberland has announced its first property, Arthouse Glasgow, will open in April 2026 after acquiring the former Abode Glasgow site earlier this year in partnership with RealVantage. The hotel will occupy a 19th-century townhouse and feature 76 bedrooms, ranging from standard rooms to larger suites.

• Dalton Leisure Centre in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, has secured an emergency £50,000 grant from Westmorland and Furness Council to prevent its "serious risk of closure" and keep it operating into the new year. The council acknowledged the valuable community role played by the 1980s-era centre and is continuing to offer management advice for long-term sustainability.

• A £59m project to build a new leisure centre and office complex in Swadlincote has advanced with the release of updated designs for the facilities at Cadley Park. Expected to be completed in 2028, the new complex will replace the current Green Bank Leisure Centre, which is slated for demolition as part of a wider town centre redevelopment.

• Universities in Sussex have received government funding to update their teaching facilities as part of an £88.5m allocation from the Office for Students (OfS) to 60 institutions in England. Specifically, the University of Brighton received £2.5m to refurbish 16 teaching rooms, and the University of Chichester was granted £300,000 to convert existing offices into digital pathology laboratories.

• PureGym is preparing to open a new "state-of-the-art" gym at Meteor Retail Park in Christchurch, which will offer a 10,000 sq ft facility featuring extensive free weights, resistance machines, and a functional zone. The gym will also provide a variety of fitness classes and personal trainers, with the official opening date to be announced soon.