London Sport – the capital’s County Sports Partnership (CSP) – has merged with disability sport expert Interactive with immediate effect.

Interactive’s staff and operational costs have been absorbed by London Sport, and no redundancies have been made. As a result of the merger Interactive will maintain its brand for another 12 months until March 2017.

The disability sports body will continue to run its existing campaigns and projects, and will work in league with its new bedfellow to enhance equality in disability sport across the capital.

Encouraging and stimulating physical activity among disabled individuals in London is one of the main priorities of London Sport, which has a target of getting 1m more Londoners active by 2020.

During a Women in Sport Insight event in London in February, London Sport chief executive Peter Fitzboydon said hard-to-reach demographics such as ethnic minority individuals and the disabled were the organisation’s focus, and the merger “ensures that disabled people remain a critical part of this vision”.

“Interactive’s team of specialists in disability equality will help to enhance London Sport’s activities and I am sure that this will have a positive impact on promoting disability equality in physical activity and sport across London,” said London Sport director of operations Angus Robertson.

Interactive chair Florence Orban said the organisation was “convinced” that the merger was the “right course of action”.

“As part of London Sport we can continue to ensure that the needs of disabled people are reflected in sport delivery in London, so that disabled Londoners can choose to be active for life,” she added.

Of London's 8.5m population, 924,700 16-64 year-olds are considered disabled under the Equalities Act. While the 19.3 per cent of disabled participants taking part in regular physical activity is higher than the national average (17.2 per cent), it is lower than the London average of 38 per cent of able-bodied regular physical activity participants.

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