Local authority matters: why council finances are critical to domestic cycling’s future

The latest blow to domestic road racing was last week’s announcement that the Tour Series will take a hiatus in 2023 and highlights just how important the state of local authority finances is to the future of domestic road racing.

Featured image: David Hares / The British Continental

Why the Tour Series matters

First run in 2009, the Tour Series has become an important cornerstone of the domestic road racing calendar over the years. At its best, the Tour Series has provided us with scintillating all-out racing in front of packed crowds in British town centres up and down the country.

17-year-old Tom Pidcock’s win at the 2017 Durham round is a case in point. A course that everything: cobbles, climbs, technical corners, hairy descents. Lines of spectators. An outstanding bike change from the cyclocross section (see 2:04 into the video below). A young upstart providing a racing masterclass to his adult opposition.

The Tour Series has brought domestic racing fans up close with current and future stars. As well as Pidcock, Connor Swift, Ed Clancy, Anna Henderson, and Jess Roberts are also recent winners of Tour Series rounds. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see 2022 round winners Luke Lamperti and Emma Jeffers reach the highest ranks in future years.

It has also been an important showcase for British teams. In the heart of town centres, the Tour Series enables teams to engage directly with the public. And thanks to coverage on ITV, it has been the only avenue in recent times for elite teams to reach a TV audience.

We are not saying the Tour Series is perfect of course. But its absence this year will be acutely felt in a season when teams, riders and fans are already facing a stripped-back National Road Series. It feels like the cupboard is almost bare for domestic road racing.

Why local authority finances matter for domestic road racing

Some on social media have pinned the blame for the Tour Series’ woes on British Cycling. The governing body is an easy target when news of this kind – all too frequent – is announced. And it is true that there is more they could – and should – do to help revive our cherished, ailing, road racing scene.

But the decision to put the Tour Series on hold also highlights how closely intertwined the racing calendar is with the financial health of local authorities – and the wider economy.

“This decision has been made in light of the most challenging economic climate the series has faced since its inaugural edition in 2009,” Tour Series organiser Sweetspot said in its press release. “It has proved impossible to compile a commercially viable calendar of events for the intended series in May owing to the pressures on local authority funding, combined with the wider economic challenges all businesses face.”

There are 333 local authorities in England, a further 32 in Scotland, and 22 in Wales. The responsibilities of local authorities vary depending on which country they are in and which ‘tier’ of governance they sit at. No need to get bogged down in the detail here though. In short, they are responsible for a range of vital local services for people and businesses.  

As venue sponsors, they matter for road races like the Tour Series. They provide the majority of funding for a typical Tour Series round (we understand it is typically around 75-80%). Furthermore, they also provide resources in terms of officer time, essential for local authorities in administering the races, from organising road closures to event planning.

Note that the Tour Series has happened a couple of times without a title sponsor and even last year the arrangement with existing partner Sportsbreaks.com was sealed fairly late. The point here is that the Tour Series can happen with little commercial sponsorship but without venue sponsorship, it can’t go ahead.

And here is the problem. Local authority finances are in a perilous state. In England, for instance, local authorities have experienced a fall in their spending power since the introduction of UK Government austerity measures in 2010. The National Audit Office estimated in 2018 that local authorities’ spending power had fallen by 29% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2017/18.

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, intensifying local government financial difficulties. In August 2020, the Local Government Chronicle reported that a leaked Cabinet Office document suggested that 1 in 20 local authorities were at high risk of failure due to the financial pressures of responding to the pandemic.

In October 2022, Cllr Andrew Western, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Resources Board, said that local government was facing “a funding gap of £3.4 billion in 2023/24 and £4.5 billion in 2024/25.” (The funding gap is the difference between the projected funding requirement for local services and local government income for these services). The problem is so acute that a number of local authorities – such as Northamptonshire, Croydon and Thurrock – have issued section 114 notices declaring themselves effectively bankrupt. Other councils have warned that they may need to do the same in the near future.

The way forward

Unfortunately, there is no easy way forward. Without a significant change in the way local authorities are funded, their woes are unlikely to change in the short-term.

For the Tour Series, we understand that one potential solution that Sweetspot has been exploring is to retain sponsorship rights (that would otherwise have been used by local authorities for local sponsors) to then lower the financial ask of a local authority. But that comes with a risk (Sweetspot effectively underwrites some of its own fee), and is by no means a silver bullet.

The good news is that each local authority is an independent entity in its own right. So just because local authority finances, in general, might not be doing well, it doesn’t mean every council has no discretionary funds or officer time.

We understand that local government appetite for hosting the Tour Series is still there too. From the positive economic impact a bike race can have on a town centre, to healthy living agendas, sustainable travel initiatives and community cohesion, there are many reasons why a town centre bike race is still an attractive proposition. So if resources can be found, the rest of the business case is already there.

Will the Tour Series return in 2024?

Judging by some of the social media reaction to the Tour Series announcement, there is a good dose of scepticism about whether the Tour Series will return. After seeing the Tour de Yorkshire take a ‘year off’ in 2020 because of the pandemic, only for it never to return, there are fears the same may happen to the Tour Series.

We’re hopeful things will be different. For a start, the Tour Series was also absent in 2020 and then did return in both 2021 and 2022. Second, whereas Tour de Yorkshire organisers Welcome to Yorkshire were a tourism body concerned with far more than ‘just’ a bike race, Sweetspot’s entire purpose is putting on bike races. They have been around a long time and have an excellent track record in organising top-level bike racing in the UK. Finally, it is worth noting that Sweetspot is not limited by geography. It has all of the local authorities in the UK it can engage with, and is not confined to just Yorkshire.

That is not a cast iron guarantee of a return. But it gives us reasons for hope.

Fingers crossed.