Olympic Games and Paralympic Games 2012

Lord Pendry Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pendry]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a debate that is so important to many of us. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Shutt and Lord Moynihan, for initiating it. In passing, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Billingham on speaking in this debate from the opposition Front Bench. She has much to contribute.

I am pleased to see so many noble Lords who can speak with such authority on this subject. I hope that I shall be forgiven for reminding the House—as I have done in the past—that I was the only MP to defy the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and witness the noble Lord, Lord Coe, winning the 1,500 and the 800 metres. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, on winning a silver medal at those Olympics. I do not see something as important as the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a partisan issue. I place on record how pleased I am that the noble Lords are so intrinsically involved in the delivery of our Games, particularly given their sporting heritage. I agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Patten, said about that.

I take this opportunity to welcome another of our country’s greatest athletes, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, of Eaglescliffe, who I am sure will make an impressive maiden speech today. She is the most successful disabled athlete in our history with 16 paralympic medals, 11 of which are gold. We all know that her influence stretches beyond medal success. As an ambassador for sport, particularly paralympic sport, she has inspired many and changed the way people in this country and around the world view disability sport. Retirement has perhaps made her busier than ever with her roles at UK Sport, UK Athletics, Transport for London and the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation. She is helping to shape the future of sport in this country at a strategic level. I am so pleased that she will be able to do that in this House. She is certainly an inspiration to me. On a personal note, I am delighted that she will be involved in the All-Party Group on Sports, which I chair, and into which we are hoping to breathe fresh life over the course of this Parliament.

In the short time available to me, I want to touch on a few different aspects of the magnificent prospect that the London Olympic and Paralympic Games offer us. They are a unique opportunity to allow us to inspire the whole nation. The building of the Olympic Park is taking place, the velodrome’s foundations are laid, the flagship Aquatics Centre will be a sensation, and the stadium is an established feature of the London skyline. If the progress on the facilities is anything to go by, our Games will be something to be proud of. The regeneration of east London is firmly under way. I am looking forward to visiting the Olympic Park tomorrow with the Mayor of Newham, the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, and other Members to see this progress with our own eyes.

The question remains, however: will we have the athletes to grace these fine arenas? There are noble Lords in this Chamber who are better placed than I am to provide an update, but if British performances in the Swimming World Championships and the Duel in the Pool last year, as well as in the cycling World Cup series, are anything to go by, we are in great shape. We have the European Athletics Championships to look forward to this summer. I am confident that the unprecedented levels of investment in and support for our sportsmen and women will allow them to take this form into the Games. The signs are certainly encouraging.

However, we have to be realistic. We know that budget cuts are inevitable. Indeed, they have already started, with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport announcing that the budget for the Games will be reduced by £27million. It is clear that widespread public spending cuts will be felt throughout society. If that is to be the case, one can only hope that the Secretary of State will do his utmost to limit the worst effects of these cuts as they bite into the Olympic budget. I heard what the Minister said about this, and we wish him a fair wind in taking part in these debates and ensuring, as far as possible, that the cuts will be mitigated. In other words, any budgetary constraints in this area must be sensible and strategic. This is too important to jeopardise by slashing crucial budgets, and in the long run that will do us no good, given that we all know that the Games, if delivered properly, will be good for the economy. I urge the Minister to ensure that this Government bring the commitments that they made in opposition into government, and remain absolutely committed to delivering an incredible Games.

One area where I have been encouraged by statements from the new Ministers is in the area of legacy—not the hard legacy of new world-class facilities, but the soft legacy of sustained increased participation in sport. This will be the focus of the rest of my speech. For me, legacy is arguably the most important aspect of the whole issue. The 2012 Games provide us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inspire a generation—an entire nation—through sport. Nothing brings people in this country together more than sport, and we must not waste this opportunity. The future of an entire generation depends on it.

Let us be clear about the facts. As I stated in a previous debate which I initiated in this House, too many people in this country are overweight or obese. Far too many of them are children. In fact, the NHS Information Centre report on obesity published last year stated that 30 per cent of girls aged between two and 15 and 31 per cent of boys are classed as overweight. Of those girls, 16 per cent are obese, and the figure is 17 per cent for boys. These figures are the result of a steady and worrying increase in recent years. Its direct cost to the NHS has reached £500 million per year, with a further £2 billion cost to the wider economy. The worst-case projection of recent trends suggests that 75 per cent of the population will be suffering the ill effects of excess weight within 15 years, with spiralling annual costs. If the Games can inspire the generation of children and young people who are suffering those ill effects, the trend will reverse. Their physical activity will bring many other benefits, too, in terms of education, community cohesion and tackling anti-social behaviour.

We need to get real about legacy and take it seriously, and there are some basic but vital starting points. CCPR has found that millions of pounds have been diverted from grassroots sport into the delivery of the Games. This cannot happen any more. We need more joined-up thinking about how we treat community sports clubs. We need to move on from the current ludicrous situation where a Minister in one department waxes lyrical about the amazing contribution that sports clubs make to our national life, while another department adds yet another layer of regulations on to the volunteers who run the clubs.

Business rates are going through the roof for amateur sports clubs; utility and water drainage costs are calculated at commercial rates for amateur clubs, which they just cannot afford; music and alcohol licensing costs and requirements are far too high for clubs to be able to handle; and amateur clubs receive widely unsympathetic VAT treatment by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Those are big problems on their own but, when combined, they are terminal for many clubs. CCPR’s Sports Club Survey found that the average amateur club operates at a margin of £1,300 a year, and volunteers now spend more time in the office than they do delivering sport. More costs and more administration will kill clubs up and down the country, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Without them, the legacy cannot be achieved, as there will be nowhere for people to go to play sport.

We need recognition from the Minister today that this legacy, which we all support, can be delivered only through a thriving community sports network, and we need a clear commitment from him that he will work across government to help community sports clubs. On the whole, they do not need charity or government handouts; they need our genuine, thoughtful, meaningful support and the space to be able to deliver the sports that they love in their communities.

The new Government are building on a good base. There are some fantastic initiatives and programmes out there. I shall not waste the House’s time by covering them in detail, but the free swimming initiative is having a huge impact at grassroots level, the Football Foundation, of which I am president, does fantastic work providing sport to young people throughout the nation, the legacy action plan is a good start and the appropriate steering groups are in place. It is now time to bring all these programmes and strands of work together in order to seize this incredible opportunity for our country. The Games will be a success—of that I am sure. It is our duty as politicians to ensure that no one involved rests until the inspirational legacy is secured. It is a duty that we should not take lightly.