The House | Labour Friends of Lidos will fight for water companies to support our pools

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The Met Office says it was provisionally the hottest the country has recorded in a series going back to 1884, beating the previous record – set only last year – by a margin its scientists describe as significant. The summer of 1976, the one my generation grew up hearing about, now ranks seventh. It is high time, then, for a lido renaissance.

From Cornwall to Hackney, outdoor pools reported exceptional demand, with some setting records. Tinside on Plymouth Hoe had welcomed more visitors by the end of July than in any season this century. Bude Sea Pool reached capacity on more days than ever before, while London Fields Lido in Hackney had passed its total for the whole of 2025 before August was out. Last summer, itself a record, the country’s biggest lido operator recorded 30 per cent more swims at its lidos and outdoor swimming sites than the year before. This one was hotter.

In Peterborough, our own lido turned 90 this year, with more than 82,000 swims so far. Some of those visits were by me during the parliamentary recess, when I joined the Lido Belles and early-morning swimmers in perfect conditions. When the government talks about Pride in Place, I can think of no better example than our lidos.

Lidos are not simply leisure amenities that happen to be old. They were a public health programme, and the people who built them knew exactly what they were doing. Peterborough’s opened in 1936, in a decade of recession, dole queues and the rise of angry politics, with a loan from the Ministry of Health. The people who ran the city believed that the man from the brickworks, the railway clerk, the shop girl and their children had as much right to an afternoon in clean water and sunshine as anyone with a villa on the Riviera. Britain had more than 300 lidos by the end of the 1930s.

Then we let them go. The rise of indoor pools, package holidays in the sun and a long squeeze on council budgets took their toll, and by 1990 only roughly a third were still open. The challenges lidos face have not gone away, but there will be more summers like this one to come. Heatwaves are arriving earlier and more often, and every council with an outdoor pool should be asking when it will open. That is why a group of MPs have formed Labour Friends of Lidos and Public Baths to raise the profile of these community assets.

This is about breathing new life into our pools or, as in the case of Bournemouth, Ipswich and Worthing, restoring them. Worthing has plans to transform its former lido into a community space, with a new tidal pool next to it.

In some places, the loss is symbolic. What was once the majestic St Leonards open-air bathing pool in Hastings is now an underground maze of pipes for sewage dumping Southern Water.

That is why we are arguing that the government should back our lidos for leisure, health and climate purposes. The forthcoming Water Bill should include provision for water companies to support these pools. The government should also look at creating a Lido Regeneration Fund to back these joyous expressions of pride and place.

The people who built our lidos planned for the weather they had, and we know the weather that is coming. If you have a lido, use it while the sun lasts. If your town lost one, ask for it back. And if you are ever in Peterborough on a hot day, come and join us. Bring a towel.

Andrew Pakes is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Peterborough and co-convenor of Labour Friends of Lidos and Public Baths