Jonathan Davies

I thank all those who have given their maiden speeches today. Each spoke with passion and commitment for all their constituents and for the communities they have been elected to serve. I also congratulate the Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes for the golden summer of sporting excellence to which they treated us, and for bringing our communities together. The commitment and sacrifices made by these sportsmen and women is inspiring, and too often we do not give them adequate recognition, so I am really pleased that we are having this debate. It is vital that we ensure that the talent pipeline to sporting excellence is robust and inclusive, so that anybody with the talent and commitment to succeed in sport can do so. Their success adds billions of pounds to the UK economy, brings whole communities together, and inspires those of us who will never compete at an elite level to participate in physical activity for the sake of our health and wellbeing. Local authorities play a key role in ensuring that this continues. They run leisure centres and swimming pools; provide parks and open spaces where people can exercise; manage bowling greens, tennis courts and football pitches; and organise initiatives whereby people can undertake physical activity to improve their health and tackle loneliness. This is essential to reduce pressure on the NHS, and to help people make healthy lifestyle choices and enjoy more years of good physical and mental health. The leisure centres and sporting facilities provided by councils are also essential to ensure that young people of all backgrounds who have the potential to reach the highest sporting levels can hone their craft. Sport must not be just for those with the recourse to pay, but must give opportunities for young people to begin their journey to being a sporting hero. For those of us who are looking to participate in sports and fitness activities for our health, that has been undermined by the draconian cuts and rising costs faced by local authorities for more than a decade. As a whole, councils have faced a 27% real-terms cut to their core spending power since 2010. Meanwhile, the challenges—the costs and the commitments they must make—have risen significantly. Leisure centres and sporting facilities are discretionary services. Councils do not have a legal responsibility to provide them—and, in the case of councils having to constantly mitigate the risk of financial meltdown, they have often been the first services to be reduced, subject to increased charges for users, or closed all together. This is an appalling situation that is storing up problems for people’s health and wellbeing, as well as for the future sporting prowess of our nation. Despite this, many councils are finding a way forward to protect their sports and leisure provision, including Amber Valley borough council, which went above and beyond to save Belper leisure centre in my constituency from closure last year. I am pleased that the Labour manifesto commits the new Government to providing greater stability to local authorities by giving them multi-year funding settlements and ending wasteful competitive bidding, but I also encourage Ministers to work with the NHS, integrated care partnerships and integrated care boards to promote the value of what councils can offer and encourage the NHS to maximise the benefit of social prescribing. When councils partner with the NHS, there are benefits for all—council services become more resilient and people benefit from better health. There is so much for the new Government to do, but I am confident that once they have got the economy back on track after years of mismanagement and wasteful spending, more can be done.