Brooking on the attack

David Bond, Deputy Political Editor @djbond6873

13 April 2012

Trevor Brooking today launched a stinging attack on the Government for taking the arts more seriously than sport. The former West Ham and England midfielder, who stands down as chairman of Sport England at the start of October, is not renowned for stoking controversy.

Brooking, who is leaving the £20,000-a-year, part-time post after four years, is better known for his role as the voice of reason on BBC's Match of the Day.

But for once Brooking, 53, has taken the gloves off. He is angry and frustrated that after one of this country's most successful sporting summers, Sport England has not been told how much money it can expect to receive from the Government in the next three years.

In July, the Chancellor of the Exchequer unveiled a Government giveaway hailed as New Labour's most ambitious programme of spending reform.

But nearly one month on, Brooking still doesn't know how much Sport England will be getting. In fact he doubts whether he will be told before he leaves as chairman, fears which have been backed up by Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who says it is "unlikely a final figure will be agreed" by the time he goes.

She points out that sport is not alone. The nation's other cultural areas such as museums, galleries, libraries and heritage sites have not been told how much money they will be getting either.

But Brooking refuses to back down. He said: "I have written to Tessa and copied it to other government departments to try to get some clarity on this issue. I think sport deserves an answer sooner rather than later.

"They keep telling me discussions are ongoing but the arts got their funding the day after Gordon Brown made the announcement.

"Everyone in sport has been left in limbo even though we have just had the most successful sporting summer in recent memory.

"I am getting to the stage where I am being asked questions about the future but I cannot tell anyone because I don't know what the funding is. There's a lot of uncertainty. Instead we have to keep going round with our little pot asking for a few bucks here and a few bucks there."

It is a fact that the arts, or more specifically the Arts Council, enjoys the vast majority of taxpayers' money which is funnelled into the weird Whitehall hybrid which is the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The DCMS has a £1.3 billion annual budget. In the current financial year sport can expect to get £102m, of which £58m will go to Sport England.

By contrast, the arts will get £297m and has already been informed that will increase to £335m, £375m and £412m over the next three years. The Government points to the £225m athletes and sport projects receive from the National Lottery. But with ticket sales falling, Brooking fears reliance on the lottery undermines the future of sport in this country.

"Arts do contribute to community life but we should at least have parity with them," he said.

"The problem is the department is totally saturated with arts people and over the past couple of years there's been no point in arguing the case for sport because no one there understands it. I have been trying to bypass them. We have to have a look at where sport sits in this country because funding has been hugely neglected at all levels. Over the next few years the lottery pot is going to get smaller and smaller and yet it's still supposed to be the solution to everything. The lottery cannot keep propping up 20 years of neglect.

"The assumption is that because so many people watch top-level sports like football and tennis, sport can look after itself. That is nonsense. What is emerging at the top level is more by luck than anything else."

The trigger for Brooking's outburst is an extra £40m allocation to fund a new programme to boost sport in schools. The Treasury has committed the money but given it to the Department for Education for two years starting in April 2004.

In the meantime, Sport England is to carry on funding the scheme, which pays for nearly 1,000 school sports co-ordinators to run after-school coaching classes and weekend teams.

Brooking wants to know if Sport England will get any more money for this from next April and whether the Department for Education will hand over some of their money in the following two years. He fears a "stitch-up" where an unfavourable outcome for sport will be announced soon after he stands down and with no new Sport England chairman in place to argue their case.

It's no surprise Brooking is concerned. The body is already subject to a review by the Cabinet Office and has just been labelled "slovenly, slack and supine" by a Select Committee report on its role in the Wembley Stadium saga.

But the Government today tried to play down Brooking's fears.

Jowell said: "Trevor has been a fantastic ambassador for sport and he must take a lot of credit for the fact that schemes like the school sports co-ordinators programme are up and running today.

"But the situation is this. I am in negotiations with the Department for Education about what it is going to fund. The expectation is we will fund year one but we can't settle this yet because Sport England is undergoing a major overhaul.

"The programme will certainly go ahead. But all the money the Treasury has allocated has come with a clear reform requirement. Sport England has signed that reform agenda and that process is under way. Until these reviews are concluded we won't be able to set a firm budget for next year. I think it's very unlikely we will have settled this by the end of September."

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