Keeping West Lothian fit is no life of leisure – Interview with Ben Lamb, CEO of West Lothian Leisure

How do you deliver more with less? It’s a conundrum that has faced many business leaders over the years, especially during the turbulent economic conditions of late. But for West Lothian Leisure (also known as XCITE), that issue is set to become a lot more pertinent. Like many similar organisations across Scotland, their business is funded through a combination of membership fees and support from the council.

“We’re a completely independent body from the council,” explains Ben Lamb, Chief Executive of West Lothian Leisure. “But we deliver services through a contract on behalf of the council, across 16 venues.

“Because of that, we historically received funding from the council to deliver these services, which has been reduced over the years.

“And in the next two years, our funding from them will be reduced to zero.”

Most of their turnover currently comes from income that they generate, from people paying for memberships or to use their services.

Yet this loss of council funding will still hit West Lothian Leisure hard, particularly as they try to provide affordable health and wellbeing services.

“It’s a bit of a cost-purpose dichotomy. On the one hand, we need to generate income and grow our revenues to remain financially sustainable in the future.

“On the other hand, we’ve got a clear social mission to improve the health and wellbeing of our community.

“It’s a challenge, and the margins are becoming smaller and smaller. We’ve seen national insurance contributions rise, utility costs have gone up, the wage pressures have been pushed up as well.”

Ben – who hails from Worcestershire and moved to Scotland around 12 years ago – has noticed wage pressures to be particularly sharp north of the border.

“We’re a Real Living Wage Employer, we try and pay our staff as much as we possibly can. Some of the higher tax bands here in Scotland makes it slightly more challenging from a recruitment point of view.

“Recruitment off the back of Covid has been particularly challenging.”

Yet one clear difference Ben has noticed between working in Scotland and England is the sense of camaraderie across our business community.

“There always seems to be a willingness to help and support” he explains, “which in London, with larger populations, isn’t the case. It’s not as close-knit.”

These close connections have been fostered by Ben’s involvement with Entrepreneurial Scotland. Despite initially thinking he didn’t “qualify” as an entrepreneur (I’m not a founder, I’m an employee” he says) he has found the support offered to be “invaluable.”

And their advice has certainly been welcome while Ben has steered West Lothian Leisure through a period of “transformational change.”

As well as the changes to their funding model, the organisation has seen a real change in customer habits since the pandemic, with a lot more service use throughout the day due to home working.

“Particularly since Covid, people’s habits and people’s lifestyles have changed. There’s a whole younger generation who are more focused on their health and wellbeing, and that’s not just physical fitness. That’s mental fitness, lifestyle as well.

Coming to the gym, working out, exercising, playing sport, I think has become more and more important to people,” Ben explains.

For Xcite, and West Lothian Leisure, that should only be good news.

And although Ben will face inevitable financial pressures in the coming years, he can rely on the support of that “close knit” business community in Scotland to help him navigate the challenge.

This article was written Alex Burns as part of the Herald Business HQ Monthly. You can read the full edition here.