£1bn plan for sports clubs in bid to get UK active

Expert coaches will be brought in to run sessions and each of the 4,000 projects will have links to at least one national sporting governing body.

The clubs will be set up under a five-year youth and community sport strategy, which will deliver on an Olympic Games bid pledge to inspire a generation to get involved in sport, according to the Government.

Most of the cash will come from Lottery funding with £200m of Government money earmarked for the plans up to 2015.

Labour last night welcomed the move but accused Ministers of failing to address the needs of younger children in the wake of the coalition’s decision to axe £162m from school sports in one of its first acts after coming into office.

Catherine McKinnell, shadow Minister with responsibility for school sports, said the Government had “finally woken up” to the need to secure the Olympic legacy for the next generation.

“However Ministers have washed their hands of the need to increase the number of children under 14 playing sport,” she said.

“The money announced today is not earmarked for under 14s. Failing to help children at this crucial stage of their development shows how out of touch they are.

“Research shows that young people who participate in sport are higher educational achievers, not to mention the longer-term savings in combating obesity and anti-social behaviour.

“Action is needed now if we are to realise the potential of the Olympics to inspire a generation of school children.”

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “Despite huge investment of public funds since we won the right to host the Games, participation by young people in sport has been falling.

“We need a radical change in policy to address the deep-seated problem of people dropping out of sport when they leave school.”

Around £450m of the cash is going directly to sports’ governing bodies between 2013 and 2017 for their “whole sport plans”, the Government said.

Of that, 60 per cent will be targeted at getting 14- to 25-year-olds into a sporting habit for life while the remaining 40 per cent will be aimed at the rest of the population.

The governing bodies will have to prove they are getting results or their public funding will be jeopardised, officials said.

Around £100m will be used to set up the school clubs and tackle the drop-off in sporting activity when youngsters leave school, including boosting sports provision at further education colleges and universities.

Schools will also have access to £10m to allow them to open up their sports facilities for public use.

Sport England chief executive Jennie Price said: “Changing the sporting behaviour of a generation is a major challenge, which has not been achieved by any other Olympic host nation.

“With a new focus on young people and an even tougher, Government-backed regime of payment by results, Sport England and its partners are determined to deliver.”

Football has pledged that 2,000 clubs will be linked to secondary schools by 2017, rugby union 1,300 clubs, cricket 1,250 clubs and rugby league and tennis 1,000 clubs each.

David Collier, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, said: “This very much mirrors cricket’s own strategy to get more young people playing at school and in clubs and keep them involved in the game throughout their lives.”

Paul Clark, chief executive of England Netball, said: “This age group is critical to our ambition of encouraging and enabling engagement in netball for life.”