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Labor has accused the Tories of wasting London 2012’s Olympic legacy by cutting grassroots sport funding nearly in half since taking office.
The party said in the last year that Labor was in government it spent more than £ 1billion on sports and recreation facilities in the fiscal year ending 2010.
Adjusted with inflation to £ 1.24 billion in today’s currency, this figure means the £ 657million spent by the Conservative administration in 2019/20 marked a decline in real terms by more than by 47%, they say.
Ministers also cut funding to local governments for the maintenance of swimming pools, parks and other recreational facilities, and the number of physical education teachers has declined, according to Labor.
The warning came as Great Britain took sixth place in the medal standings for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with a particularly strong performance in pools and dives.
Shadow Sports Minister Alison McGovern said: “The GB team have performed brilliantly in these games so far and our athletes are fantastic ambassadors for our country – brave and determined, pushing the limits, winning medals and breaking records.
“Sadly, the legacy of the Olympics that should have been built from 2012 – not in medals, but in a country that prioritizes health, physical and mental – is not here. actions by the Conservative government from 2010. A Labor government is urgently needed to meet the country’s ambition for sport and fitness.
Labor has highlighted the Tory’s cut in funding for free swimming and dropping the goal of increasing sports participation by two million – policies put in place under New Labor – as examples of the legacy of the London Games endangered.
A recent parliamentary question showed under the Tories that the number of physical education teachers increased from 26,005 in 2011 to 23,513 in 2020.
Cuts to council budgets in England have also had a huge impact on grassroots sport, Labor said, as local authorities are responsible for maintaining a third of swimming pools, 31% of the grounds in grass, 13% of gyms and almost a fifth of health and fitness facilities.
MPs learned in June that many local authority sports facilities were so neglected during the lockdown that they were unusable when the lockdown ended. School closures also meant that many gymnasiums and grounds could not be used by individuals or clubs.
Attendance has also dropped due to the pandemic. According to the latest figures, an estimated 36.8% of adults in England were underactive – a figure 9% above the global average determined by the World Health Organization.
Dr Esther van Sluijs, of the Medical Research Council’s Center for Food and Activity Research, told MPs on the sport select committee that the potential impact of blockages on activity levels, health and fitness people’s well-being “will not only have a significant influence on subsequent morbidity and mortality. but also have an impact on the ability of people to resume physical activity after the pandemic, as they will likely have lost their physical form. They might have put on weight and established sedentary habits that are really hard to overcome. Many of these factors are barriers to increasing physical activity.
The all-party group of MPs called on the government and Sport England to step up efforts to encourage people to return to sport in order to anticipate any further drop in participation in the latest lockdown.
They recommend that the government launch a sporting equivalent of the “eat out to help” campaign, titled “train to help, inspire volunteers and participants to get involved, participate in organized sport and support sport infrastructure,” both in England and across the UK.
Labor has said it will use its recovery plan for children to support physical activity in schools by using their facilities to offer a range of before and after school clubs and activities, including sport .
She also calls for placing sport at the heart of a post-pandemic education revival, citing the example of its own national education revival plan.
A government spokesperson said: ‘We are backing the boards with record funding and have increased their core purchasing power in England by 4.6% in terms of cash to £ 51.3 billion this fiscal year.
“We also worked with Sport England on their 10-year strategy to increase activity levels and improve people’s physical and mental health.
“This is in addition to the priority given to sport and physical activity during the pandemic and to working closely with Sport England, UK Sport and the National Lottery to provide £ 1 billion to ensure the sectors survive. grassroots, elite and recreation. “
Officials highlighted the success of the GB team in Tokyo, arguing that it was a reflection of the investments made over the past decade by the central government.
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