Olympic Games and Paralympic Games 2012

Baroness Billingham Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Billingham]

My Lords, I begin by welcoming the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, to the government Front Bench, and thank him for introducing the debate today.

I look forward to this being the first of many debates on the Olympics over the coming months, right up to 27 July 2012. I know that the noble Lord will use his forensic skills and judgment to help to ensure that the Games will be an outstanding success. In his comprehensive opening speech, he outlined for us the progress of a project already in play, and it was a very welcome starting point. As such, I offer my good wishes to him as one Dispatch Box debutant to another.

All today's speakers have great expertise in the Olympic project. We are, indeed, so fortunate to have contributors of such calibre who can be relied upon as a unit to hold the Government to account. We welcome the contributions from the noble Lord, Lord Pendry, whose expertise and involvement is acknowledged by all of us. He reminded us of all the key factors of the Games, and sport has no greater supporter. But be warned, Minister, we will watch you like hawks and hound you like tigers if you do not ensure that London's Olympic Games are the best ever.

Before moving on to the major points to be raised by the Opposition today, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, on her maiden speech. How lucky we are to have her in this House. Her experience is unique. She has long affected us in countless sporting events, and we have cheered and—I have to admit—sometimes shed a tear at her exploits. Her qualities of skill and determination ensured her world success and fame. Those qualities will ensure her success in this House. We look forward to many more contributions from her.

So let us briefly look back to the beginning of our Olympic dream. With a mixture of apprehension and excitement, the positive view prevailed, and once the decision was taken, the nation got behind it. Doubts about affordability were upset by the promise of the regeneration of one of the poorest areas in London. I know only too well, as a former chair of an urban regeneration company in Corby, how the quality of life of local residents can be transformed. It was a major factor there and will be so in east London. The Labour Government were absolutely wholehearted in their support, and I am delighted to say that today’s coalition Government are taking exactly the same approach.

The new Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson, is on record as saying:

“The Games have been part of my life for so long and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to help steer the project though to the home stretch”.

Such an endorsement is invaluable, as is the team who, from the outset, has proved itself quite brilliant in turning the project into reality. However, many speakers today have warned against budget cuts affecting the Games. Please relay the concerns from all sides of this House to the Minister.

At this moment, of course, we are all obsessed with World Cup football, and quite rightly so—let us get over Saturday and look to next Friday—but if ever a team led by Tessa Jowell and Seb Coe were to take to the Olympic stage, there would be only one winner. Quite simply, they have been fantastic and have gathered around them a team of men and women of peerless skill. Does Britain have talent? Clearly it does. Today those skills allow them to proclaim that the project is, in the jargon, “on time, on budget and on track”, and how many projects in the past decade have been able to claim that? We salute them.

My noble friend Lady Ford reminded us that the preparations for the legacy project are well under way. I know that the Minister will wish to respond to her concerns, coming as they do from such a knowledgeable source. The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, spoke of our athletes winning Olympic medals—and who understands more than her how that success is to be achieved?

I would like to rewind the tape and remind us why the Olympic project is so important to Britain. In June 2007 the Government set out five major legacy promises that they pledged to deliver. They were to make the United Kingdom a world-leading sporting nation; to transform the heart of east London, which contains some of the five poorest boroughs in the capital; to inspire a generation of young people to take part in local volunteering, cultural and physical activity; to make the Olympic park a blueprint for sustainable living; and to demonstrate—this is particularly important—that the United Kingdom is a creative, inclusive and welcoming place to live in and visit, as well as for business.

Meeting those targets will define the project’s success. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, reminded us of the broader implications of sport in clubs, schools and colleges. Utilising the impetus of volunteering was another factor. I am sure that the Minister will wish to endorse these facets of the Olympic legacy. If we add the Olympic movement values of respect, courage, excellence, ambition and determination, the aspiration for changing people’s lives becomes apparent.

The noble Lord, Lord Bates, took us for a stiff jog around the background of the modern Olympics. We were left breathless but much better informed as a result of his input. Today, though, we have challenges. The financial collapse is impossible to ignore. Fortunately, funds are in place and the project is sound, but a belt-tightening Government will have difficult decisions to make. There are those who opposed the Games from the outset; they may well believe that their time has come and will become vocal yet again. Those voices must be countered.

The success so far of the construction of the project points the way to future economic success. It can act as a blueprint for Britain’s revival in the years ahead, building our way out of recession. My noble friend Lady Morgan reminds us that the building and engineering innovation is unique, and that is a message that we should be proud to proclaim. The regeneration of the heart of east London has the potential to transform the lives of people who live there now and, most importantly, of those who will live there in the future. So will the Government meet the demands of the local people—the legacy that was promised them: 12,000 new homes, many affordable; local jobs going to local people; and the promise at the end of the day of a stunning park that will be enjoyed for generations to come?

Will the security provisions be strong enough, as the noble Lord, Lord Patten, has asked? He gave us grave warnings, and these questions must be answered. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, raised similar concerns, and his timely warnings cannot be ignored. Will the transport system be in place to make a journey to the Games a pleasure, not a penance? Even the Mayor of London seems to have misgivings about that. I, too, echo the warnings from the noble Lord, Lord Patten; I remember the opening night of the Dome. Add to that the current horrors of the Jubilee line—you try getting on that at the weekend—and I assure your Lordships that we have much work to do.

I hear rumours—I almost said “ugly rumours”, but I thought better of it—that the compulsory two hours of PE now enjoyed by 80 per cent of children in state schools is under threat. Can that be so? Will the promise of a new sporting generation of young people be realised? It has taken us a decade to repair the neglect in the 1980s and 1990s of the place of sport in the curriculum. The loss of competitive school sports was immeasurable. All those teams of excited youngsters were cast aside. Now we can rebuild on the time that is spent on this in state schools.

The Minister must make his voice heard. We must give all our children a chance to play sport, regardless of their background. In so doing, we should reverse the trend where the vast majority of Olympic medals are won by those who come out of the public school system, which, unlike the state sector, has prized and encouraged sporting excellence and never let dogma destroy its sport and games systems. The noble Lord, Lord Hoyle, made a timely contribution on participation in sport, and I echo his question about whether the targets are being achieved. If we are “all in this together”, this could be a very good place to start.

Time is against us today. I know there are many more issues, such as women in sport and encouraging more people to participate in the Paralympics. These have been touched on by others and I am sure that the Minister will touch on them in his reply. The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, gave us an encyclopaedic outline of the matrix of the various parts of the many contributing organisations and associations involved in the project. We are indebted to him not only for that but for the foresight in securing this debate today.

This is but the opening set of a very long match. We look forward to the Minister’s replies and the continued cross-party support that has been, and will be, so crucial to the success of the London Olympics—surely a project of a lifetime. This has been an uplifting debate that has shown this House in the best possible light, and we can be proud of it.