Sports Facilities: Management (Hansard, 30 April 1991)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, the Government have introduced legislation requiring local authorities to put the management of their sports facilities out to competitive tendering during 1992. The Government believe that this will result in better value for money from local authority expenditure.

§ Lord Gisborough
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. Can she say whether there is any evidence that putting out the facilities to competitive tendering has been a success?

Bareness Blatch
My Lords, competitive tendering has been a success. Three years ago Westminster City Council voluntarily entered into a partnership with Civic Leisure Ltd. for the company to manage three leisure centres in the City of Westminster. That has resulted in major refurbishment of the leisure centres, an increased variety of activities offered, reduced costs and, most importantly, an increase in the number of people using the centres.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, will the noble Baroness enlarge further upon that answer? She referred to one specific authority. Is she able to say whether that applies more generally to all authorities? Is it the case that sports facilities are now being more widely used? In particular, is it the case that many more people are using facilities for which they do not have to pay? Is it the fact, as some of us fear, that local authorities are losing a number of their most important sports facilities?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, in general where effective management is taking place, whether that is in-house management or, under competitive tendering, private management, the facilities and provision are better. Also, the Audit Commission which produced this report found local authorities lacking in a number of ways. Investment decisions are sometimes poorly thought out. Authorities are not always ready to consider the full range of options. Revenue consequences are not always considered in enough 610 detail. Objectives are rarely quantified and success or failure in meeting objectives is rarely measured and monitored. I could go on. It is essential that management is improved.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, I am sorry to pursue the matter but I have read the report which seemed to concentrate entirely on what one might call management and financial matters. I was concerned as to whether the Audit Commission was aware that the facilities were for the purpose of sporting activities and not for saving or making money. The facilities are provided so that everybody can take part in sport. It may well be that local authorities are not very good as regards management, although I do not agree with that proposition. Does not the noble Baroness agree that for a long time local authorities provided a very wide range of sports facilities? I am concerned that that may not happen in future.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, as always the noble Lord, Lord Peston, raises a very important point. The Audit Commission report states that whatever the social aims, local authorities also need financial objectives if they are to manage the facilities properly. Local authorities have found it difficult to strike the right balance between social and financial objectives. When the financial objectives are achieved, the social benefits will follow.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, is not my noble friend Lord Peston quite right when he says that this is only one minor facet in the provision of sports facilities for people in general? Will the Minister look at the debate which took place last Wednesday? That indicated a startling reduction in school playing fields because they are being sold off. Swimming pools are being closed down by local authorities because they can no longer afford to keep them open in view of the financial strait jacket imposed upon them by this Government. Is that not the real reason, and the report has little to do with that?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I could not disagree more with the noble Lord, Lord Dean of Beswick. First, authorities' net expenditure on revenue support for sport is over £400 million per year in England and Wales. In addition, over £100 million capital expenditure is incurred each year. The past 20 years have seen a major expansion in the number of facilities and range of activities offered. Local authorities now manage 1,700 indoor sports facilities as well as many outdoor facilities including over 150 golf courses.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, is the Minister saying that the report produced by the Central Council for Physical Recreation, which is nonpolitical, is lying? I know who I believe.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am not making that specific allegation about a report to which at present I am not able to respond. However, I can say that a very detailed study by the Audit Commission has found that it is not about the facilities and provision, which have increased over the past 20 years, but it is about the effective management of those facilities.

§ Lord Gisborough
My Lords, is the Minister aware that there are some sports and leisure centres where there is little or no control over the retail sales? A normal retailer in such circumstances would be driven out of business in a short time. Many sports halls make unnecessarily large losses.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, my noble friend makes an important point. It is important that local authorities are both specific in quantifying objectives and in ensuring that those objectives are achieved by the best possible and most effective management. That management may be by local authorities directly or by private companies. It is the quality of management that is important.

§ Lord Molloy
My Lords, to keep things in balance, does not the noble Baroness agree that many local authorities that initiated the idea of this kind of recreation for ordinary people in latter years have employed professional people to guide and help them? Sometimes that professional guidance caused some of the criticisms that we are discussing today. We need a sensible liaison between professional people employed in this respect by local authorities and for local authorities to ensure that they receive the best possible advice.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, that is another important point made by the noble Lord, Lord Molloy. It is important that professionals are used when it is necessary to obtain professional advice. At the end of the day it is proper deployment of professional advice and proper and effective management of the facilities which will benefit the populace.