The Department of Health (DH) has launched a new plan to get couch potatoes off their sofas.

The scheme – called Be Active, Be Healthy – aims to get people involved in activities such as dancing, swimming and walking.

According to government figures, more than 27 million adults in England are not getting enough exercise and 14 million don’t complete 30 minutes a week – contributing to 9,000 obesity-related premature deaths each year.

Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said: “Physical activity is the key to stopping this country becoming the obesity capital of the world – and it makes us feel better. People of all ages can gain from doing more exercise, but not enough of us do the magic 30 minutes, five days a week.

“We have to remove the ‘no, you can’t’ messages across communities to create a ‘yes, you can’ culture – with more support, more encouragement and more opportunities across communities to get people active.”

Key measures of the strategy include partnerships with both private and voluntary organisations to get people active, including: a new Learn to Swim programme for adults as part of the government’s Free Swimming scheme; a working group to explore how to harness the Strictly Come Dancing fever that has supposedly swept the nation; a total of 2,012 Active Challenge walking routes across England; and the expansion of the Walking the Way to Health scheme.

Other measures include the formation of a new Physical Activity Alliance – which will pool the resources of leisure centres and grassroots organisations alike to encourage physical activity – and the contribution of £4m for County Sports Partnerships to help bring together councils, PCTs and other grassroots providers.

Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL) welcomed the news. Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of BISL and also a member of the interim steering group for the aforementioned Physical Activity Alliance, said: “For the first time ever, the DH is putting real resource into physical activity and is working with the DCMS and Sport England on shared targets to get the nation active.

“It is also the beginnings of a genuine partnership, not only across government but also – through the Physical Activity Alliance – with our sector.”

Photograph: BISL chief executive Brigid Simmonds