Introduction

1. Background

The majority of Welsh Government funding for sport is directed through Sport Wales, which this year has a total of £23.5 million revenue and £10.1 million capital funding which may be used to support grassroots sport. Sport Wales has established specific grant schemes designed to support and nurture grassroots sport, such as the Be Active Wales Fund and the Crowdfunder Scheme.

2. Historic funding levels of sport in Wales

Following a decade of funding reductions from the Welsh Government and local authorities, public funding of culture and sport in Wales is lower, per head, than most European nations.

Analysis from Senedd Research compared public spending on culture and sport with 24 European countries (including the UK as a whole) for which data was available.

The average spend on recreation and sporting services in these countries is £187.74 per person. In Wales the figure is £59.75 per person, or 32% of the average of these countries. This placed Wales third from bottom.

2.1. A decade of cuts

In total, 2024-25 saw the Welsh Government cut revenue funding for culture and sport by 7.7% compared to 2023-24 allocations. Capital funding, which is less than half the value of revenue allocations, increased by 6.3%.

This meant that, by its own calculations, the Welsh Government had cut revenue budgets in these areas by 17% in real-terms over a decade. Over the same period, capital budgets (which are still less than half the size of revenue budgets) almost tripled in size.

The 2024-25 cuts were reversed in 2025-26. This leaves revenue funding (excluding non-cash, which is nominal and not available for day-to-day spending) for culture and sport bodies largely back where it was in 2023-24 – meaning a real-terms cut.

Key points:

§    Sport Wales’s revenue allocation (excluding non-cash) increased by 10% between the 2025-26 Revised Baseline and the 2025-26 June Supplementary Budget.

§    However, Sport Wales’s revenue allocation (excluding non-cash) increased by less than 1% between 2023-24 and the 2025-26 June Supplementary Budget. This is less than inflation, which was about 4% between 2023 and 2025.

§    Sport Wales’s capital allocation is £10 million is 2025-26 in the June Supplementary Budget. It was £8 million in the 2025-26 Revised Baseline.

Provision of culture, sport and recreation services is largely discretionary for local authorities. Between 2013-14 and 2023-24, local authority revenue funding of libraries, culture, heritage, sport and recreation reduced by 28% in real terms, whilst spending on education and social services soared.

Local authority revenue outturn by service (£000s) (2001-2 to 2022-23)

Source: Stats Wales

3.     Welsh Parliament action

In 2024 the Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee conducted an inquiry into the impact of reductions in funding for culture and sport.

It highlighted the gap in funding for these sectors between Wales and other European nations, and called for the Welsh Government to reach parity of funding with similar countries. The Welsh Government accepted this recommendation in principle, and responded with funding increases in the 2025-26 Final Budget.  These increases largely reversed the 2024-25 cuts, but still mean a net reduction – once inflation is considered – in revenue spending for Sport Wales between 2023-24 and 2025-26 (see 2.1 in this briefing).