Speeches by Peacock.

“That goes back to the point around place-based community decision making. We want to talk to local communities and hear what they have to say, rather than it being piecemeal by sport.”

“I think the point that the LGA made was that the funding has to follow that. While I think there has been a generous funding settlement from the Government Department, clearly there have been significant cuts in the last 15 years. I give again the example of my own area: 40%, some of the worst cuts in the country. They…”

“I am the sports Minister. Of course, I do not want to see facilities taken away. We have spent a lot of time with the Committee talking about how we need to improve and invest in facilities. It is in absolutely no one’s interest to give with one hand and take away with the other.”

“I can answer that in two parts. In terms of the new build, I think currently in multi-sport programmes across the UK, there are 1,600 projects this year, of which 200 are brand new, 200 are renovations, and the rest are everything from goalposts to new pitches. There is a real range. The Secretary of State has talked a…”

“Taking a step back, I do appreciate that the planning system simply is not working and I could share many examples from my own constituents of that. I think the evidence you heard from the Football Foundation is clear. It is far too slow, so I do think there is an issue here. I cannot speak for Bill as a whole, but tha…”

“I am very aware of the statistics and I have spoken to Sport England about it. I am familiar with their work. I have spoken to the Minister about the issue as a whole and the Department will be opening a consultation very shortly. I do encourage people to contribute to that consultation and make those views heard.”

“That is a very important and very fair question. I was interested to hear your evidence session with from the Football Foundation, where you spoke about how the planning system is often too slow. People expect their applications to come back in 13 weeks, but often are waiting for 22 weeks. I will not repeat the evidenc…”

“You are right that the school games organiser network’s outcomes are phenomenal and they do much more than one might assume, creating massive sporting opportunities, the schools' Olympics. However, at best, I think some of them deal with 19 schools and at worst, I think it is 150. To the Minister’s earlier point, cover…”

“That is a good question. I listened to the evidence that you took from the Football Foundation. They obviously have plans up and down the country for every local authority. They are refreshing that at 40% multi-sport, and they encourage other sports to get involved in those facilities. However, there is absolutely an a…”

“Can I take you back to the school in my constituency? I was struck by the fact that the head teacher worked in sport, so he was focused on it with the daily miles and sorting out the playing field. I can go to a different school and find that the teachers lack the training and therefore the confidence. In the sport tha…”

“We had a roundtable—we call them round; they are never roundtables, are they?—where we had the main governing bodies in to the Department for Education probably about six months ago and we had a conversation about how sport and schools can work more closely together. I think there has been a missed opportunity, but the…”

“Indeed, yes, and perhaps they will take that away. We are very keen to work closely across government. I have spoken to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on a number of occasions about a number of different issues, and that is perhaps something I can take away and follow up with them.”

“That is a good example. I am really pleased to hear you had a successful campaign. Through our active partnerships, we absolutely want to bring together everyone in the local area—local councils, sports clubs, schools and so on. I do appreciate the pressure that councils have been under and refer back to the evidence y…”

“It depends on what part of the sector you are talking about. Leisure is an obvious example but there may be other areas and we are open to all suggestions. I don’t know if you want to come in on that, Adam?”

“There is absolutely a role to attract private investment and indeed we already do that with a lot of our match funding. The Football Foundation with the Premier League is the most obvious example, but to take the example of public leisure, of course that is quite challenging because it falls to local authorities. Peter…”

“We have a positive story to tell. Half a billion pounds across sport and school sport is going in this year alone, and if you look at the funding settlement, it is £400 million on grassroots, half a billion on major events, £344 million on Olympic and Paralympic, and £250 million for Sport England. But I think the ques…”

“We are actively looking at all options. I don’t know if Adam Conant wants to come in on some of the work that we are doing.”

“That is a good question. You mentioned leisure and taking leisure as an example. It does not fall in my Department, it obviously falls to local government, but it is a huge part of getting people active, and we are very keen to look at creative solutions as to how we can tackle that. I am also the Minister for the Impa…”

“Of course, and if you go back to the cricket domes, where there are cricket domes, we will be covering tennis courts. I know there are fairly affordable ways to do that, but it will be part of our business planning and part of the £400 million allocation.”

“I went out to visit the LTA a few months ago—it is probably longer ago now than I realise; it was probably six months ago—and I was delighted to be at Wimbledon last week. I know the whole nation would have been inspired by that, but to my earlier point, we do want the facilities for people to be able to go and take pa…”