Sport: Team GB and ParalympicsGB

Andy MacNae Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andy MacNae (Rossendale and Darwen) (Lab)]

It is a true pleasure to follow all the wonderful maiden speeches today and to hear that shared commitment to service and community. It really is inspiring. Once again, I feel incredibly proud to be part of this intake. I am also very aware that, when speaking at the end of a debate, there is a danger of repetition, and I apologise in advance for any that may happen. However, I can manage one fresh statistic: Root and Brook’s partnership of 454 is the highest ever in English cricket, which is remarkable.

I am so pleased to have this opportunity to speak in this debate and to congratulate and take pride in the wonderful achievements of our Olympic team. My sport is climbing and so I must especially congratulate Toby Roberts for his amazing gold in sport climbing. It was a brilliant competition and, at the risk of a pun, gripping to the very end. It was just a wonderful day for the sport. Back in the day, when I worked at the British Mountaineering Council and, for a period, oversaw the competition programme, we never imagined even the possibility of getting climbing into the Olympics, and it is amazing how far our sport has come.

It is not the only new Olympic sport that is inspiring a new generation. Mountain biking, BMX, skateboarding and even surfing are now on a summer programme and offer a whole new set of opportunities for involvement in a sporting life. There really is now a sport for everyone.

There can be no doubt about the power of inspiration provided by our great British athletes, nor of the power of sport for good, whether that is the positive impact it has on mental and physical health, educational outcomes, social mobility, crime and antisocial behaviour or just plain wellbeing. The evidence is comprehensive and undeniable. Indeed, the excellent 2023 report “Healthy Britain” by my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) makes the case and the solutions crystal clear. Yet for so many young people, the spark of inspiration once lit is allowed to go out all too easily. Although we enjoy the success of our GB athletes, we must recognise that 14 years of austerity has decimated local leisure services and sporting facilities, with the result that, for all too many, there is nowhere to go to pursue a sporting dream or even just an active life.

Although we rightly invest in athletes to provide inspiration and in exemplar facilities for progression, we too often forget those first steps into an active sporting life and the facilities and coaches that enable it. It is those very facilities that have felt the full force of austerity.

As someone who had the leisure portfolio at my local authority for eight years, I have seen the amazing work done by councils and leisure trusts to maintain any sort of leisure provision, while being hit by cut after cut. Despite these best efforts, too many swimming pools and leisure centres have closed. Of those that remain, two thirds of facilities, including all those in my constituency of Rossendale and Darwen, are past their lifespan and at risk of closure or reduced services. Play areas are overgrown, pitches are waterlogged, and so on, and so on—the consequences are there for all to see.

Despite our amazing medal success, we remain a relatively inactive nation. We have heard these stats before, but they bear repetition: more than one third of adults do not meet the chief medical officer’s minimum requirements for physical activity; and almost one third of children and young people are inactive, meaning that 12.4 million adults and 2.3 million children and young people do less than 30 minutes of activity a week. Obesity is estimated to cost the UK economy £58 billion a year. The British Heart Foundation estimates that the annual cost to the economy of cardiovascular disease is £19 billion.

It is children and young people from the least affluent families who have been the hardest hit. They remain the least active and are falling further behind. It is in our most deprived areas where we see the most stark evidence of gaps in provision and in participation pathways. For children in these areas, horizons can be narrow. To be meaningful and impactful, facilities must be truly local and truly accessible—a kick-about area, a basketball court at the end of the road, a skatepark bouldering area, a pump track in a park that people can walk or ride to, a bike library, a community centre offering indoor sports through the winter, or simply being able to access the countryside that we see every day. That, to me, is the gap that we need to address if we are to complete the pathway from inspiration to sustained participation and perhaps excellence. We need to recognise that the task is beyond the national lottery, Sport England or stressed local authority budgets.

We must connect departmental investment to the benefit that it brings. The Government have rightly prioritised prevention and rejected sticking-plaster solutions. One way that we can turn this intent into action is by properly investing via health, policing, social security and other budgets in delivering the long-term benefits that we know sport and active lifestyles can provide. The evidence is clear, the gap is clear and the opportunity is one that we must grasp.