Adults in Braintree are more active than the average person in the East of England, new figures have revealed.

A Sport England survey of almost 500 people aged over 16 in the district found 67 per cent are exercising for more than two and a half hours a week in the year to November – up from 63 per cent the year before.

This was a higher than the national figure of 63 per cent of people having regular physical activity.

About 13 per cent of adults in the district said they were fairly active, exercising between 30 and 149 minutes a week.

And 21 per cent said they were inactive – down from 25 per cent the year before and from 30 per cent in 2015-16.

Sport England boss Tim Hollingsworth said: “At the moment, how likely you are to be active depends too much on your bank balance and your postcode.

“That’s why we will continue to target our investment in places where it can make the biggest difference and on the groups who have most to gain.”