Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to all-weather football pitches at grassroots level.

Sport England invests £18million each year into football facilities on behalf of the DCMS through ring-fenced exchequer contributions to the Football Foundation.

This funding, matched in partnership with the FA and the Premier League, sees more money than ever before going towards priorities identified in the National Football Facilities Strategy. The Strategy sets new challenging targets to significantly improve the nation’s facilities stock over the next 10 years with an increase in 3G pitches is a key strategic priority. This will be delivered through initiatives like the “Parklike Hubs” programme that predominantly aims to deliver multi pitch 3G hubs for community use at strategic locations across the country.

Local authorities are important stakeholders in the implementation of the National Football Facilities Strategy as so much of the stock of facilities are in public ownership. Sport England is working closely with the FA to develop Local Football Facility Plans for every Local Authority in England. The plans will be in place by 2020 and will identify local priorities where investment in grassroots facilities is needed the most.