Mr. Gareth ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action she is taking to(a) increase and (b) refurbish sports facilities in London; and if she will make a statement. [105598]
§ Mr. CabornLocal authorities a re the key providers of sport and recreation facilities in their areas. For that reason they are responsible for making the difficult judgments about what sports facilities to provide at the expense of local taxpayers, and the decisions about the renovation of local facilities.
Significant investment from the National Lottery has helped to create new state of the art community sports facilities. Local authorities may apply to the Lottery Sports Fund for grants for the creation of new sports facilities, and the upgrading of existing facilities to increase participation. London boroughs have received 201 grants from the Lottery Sports Fund's Community Capital Fund totalling over £249.5 million, for projects costing over £675 million.
Local education authorities in the London boroughs will also benefit from the New Opportunities Fund's PE and Sport programme which aims to bring about a step change in the provision of sports facilities for young people and for the local community. The New Opportunities Fund provisionally allocated funding to each local education authority area to ensure that funding is available for projects in all parts of the country. Local education authorities in London have been allocated £81,286,000 under the programme.
The Government's planning guidance to local authorities (PPG 17) requires local planning authorities to undertake assessments to determine what deficiencies exist in their areas and to remedy those deficiencies in provision via their plans and planning decisions.