Suffolk-based Abbeycroft Leisure has become the latest UK-based leisure trust to announce that it will launch a budget gym concept.

The non-profit group is to open its first low-cost health club in the heart of Ipswich later this month.

The Gym Ipswich will open on 24 January in the former St Matthews Baths in Civic Drive after a major refurbishment of the building.

The club will boast a 100-station gym equipped by Matrix and offer memberships starting at £12.99 per month with no joining fee.

Warren Smyth, chief executive of Abbeycroft, said: "The more affordable fitness is the more people will start taking exercise and that can only be a good thing for the UK where 62 per cent of Britons are already obese or overweight.

Abbeycroft manages both Haverhill and Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centres in Suffolk in partnership with St Edmundsbury Borough Council

In November 2010 Kirklees Active Leisure (KAL), which operates community leisure services in West Yorkshire, announced it was to open two budget gyms in the Huddersfield and Dewsbury areas.