Sports minister Tracey Crouch has urged local authorities to invest in sport despite large cuts to the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in the latest spending review.
During Crouch’s first Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee hearing since the publication of the government’s sports strategy –
Sporting Future – she said that local government was expected to play its part as the “largest public sector investor in sport”.
Local authorities spend more than £1bn (US$1.5bn, €1.4bn) per year on sport and physical activity, excluding capital spend.
She said that despite a budget decrease of up to 30 per cent for the DCLG during the current parliament, announced by chancellor George Osborne last November, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had not audited the effect the cuts would have on local authority sport delivery.
However, Crouch highlighted the work done by local councils in Kent, the county of her Chatham and Aylesford constituency, which “had not taken an axe to its sports and leisure facilities” and was seeing improvements in health as a consequence.
“It’s controversial to say, but Medway Council kept the free swimming for under-16 and over-60s and as a consequence people are still participating,” she added.
Under the terms of the new sports strategy, local authorities will be eligible to bid for Sport England funding to develop and implement physical activity strategies if they are located in areas where participation is lower than average.
Crouch, due to take maternity leave at the end of the month, was quizzed by MPs about recording “tangible results” for some of the pilot schemes Sport England is expected to fund in accordance with the strategy.
The first annual report will be published in December, a year after
Sporting Future was revealed. Crouch conceded that some aspects, such as measuring participation by women and people from lower socioeconomic groups, were easier to record than the effect the strategy would have on mental health and social value, although she was “confident it will be able to meet the targets set”.
Grassroots football and its relationship with the Premier League was also a point of reference for the committee, which is headed up by Crouch’s Conservative colleague Jesse Norman.
The sports minister revealed that following the final settlement the Premier League makes regarding its television rights, as well as Ofcom’s investigation into the transaction, it will plough more than £100m (US$146.2m, €135.9m) per annum into grassroots football, double the current commitment of £52m (US$76m, €70.7m).
Crouch implied that the added money – which is coming as a result of the broadcasting deal the league signed worth £8.2bn (US$12bn, €11.1bn) for the three years from 2016 – would be used to fund new facilities and heart screening apparatus.
Experienced football coach Crouch said: “I’ve seen the poor changing rooms and facilities, and goalposts that are about to fall on people’s heads, and it’s really important the money we’re spending is going into the areas of real need across the whole country.”
