London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill

My Lords, I start by adding my congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Valentine, on her excellent maiden speech. Like many noble Lords, I look forward to her continuing contributions to our business. I may be the least likely Member of your Lordships’ House to participate in a debate about a sporting event. From a sporting point of view, as my family and friends will testify, I am certainly the least qualified. However, I am passionate about other matters that are inextricably linked to the winning of the 2012 Olympics, about which I feel strongly enough to endure the derision of others about my woeful ignorance about matters sporting. I welcome the words of my noble friend the Minister about Tony Banks, Lord Stratford. Tony would surely have enlivened proceedings today by telling us a few scurrilous tales about how the bid was won. He was a dear family friend for over 20 years. We hardly got to know him in your Lordships’ House before he was taken from us, and it is indeed a terrible shame. I need to declare several interests, as a board member of Social Enterprise London, and as chair of the Social Enterprise Coalition, the national voice for social enterprise. I have worked, and work now, for several organisations that have an interest in the Olympic Games, such as London Remade, who worked with the London organising committee for the Games to ensure that the 2012 bid was the most sustainable ever submitted, and added to that bid green procurement and zero waste. I am also associated with a community-based organisation called O-Regen, which is based in Walthamstow, and whose employment programmes and community centres are exactly what is needed to benefit local people over the next six years in preparation for the Games. Finally, I was a resident of Hackney, one of the five Olympic boroughs, for almost 20 years. I hope that at long last Hackney will get some of the infrastructure it needs as a result of the Games. Indeed, it is my association with community-based organisations and businesses, and my long association with east London, that led me to express the hope that the Olympics will belong to London, and the east of London. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State and her team, along with the noble Lord, Lord Coe, the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London, and indeed the young Londoners they took with them to Singapore, are a huge credit to all of us. They did a magnificent job winning the bid. Although I am not a sporty person myself, I supported the bid from the outset, and am enormously excited by the possibilities the Olympics offer, not just to London, but to the UK. Indeed, my home county, Yorkshire, was one of the first to support and then welcome the 2012 Olympics, with Terry Hodgkinson, the chairman of Yorkshire Forward, saying:"““we will be looking to attract more athletes to train in the region and are looking forward to showing the world what we have to offer””." I think I have even travelled home on one of the GNER 2012 trains. The Olympics are a huge undertaking, and I am confident we will produce a brilliant and sustainable Games. My interests lie in the legacy of the Games and the benefits to social enterprise and local businesses, communities and local people over the next six years, during the Games and thereafter. My questions about the Bill are centred on whether the proposals, structures and powers are robust enough and will enable and ensure the delivery of these benefits. This is the test I will be bringing to this Bill in its passage through your Lordships’ House. The fact that the indices of deprivation state that, of the 354 local authorities, three of the five London Olympic boroughs are the fourth, fifth and 11th most deprived communities in the UK—and the other two are in the top 50—tells us that it will not be enough to allow either the marketplace or the default position of public procurement to rule. In other words, to revert to the comfort zone of very large developers and huge management facility companies cleaning up on the big contracts for the Games would mean that much of the real wealth would be lost to the areas that are intended to benefit from them. Part of the planning has to include a commitment to enable the boroughs and communities; schools and colleges; businesses large and small, traditional and social; and the full range of charity and voluntary organisations to play their part. We do not want an Olympics ““done unto”” the Lea Valley and the East End of London. We want an Olympics that draws on, builds on and invests in the Lea Valley and the East End of London. That will require imagination and long-term aspirational thinking to deliver regeneration to the Lea Valley, wider London and the UK. This is the challenge facing the Government, the Mayor and the ODA. Contracts are already being granted, so no time is to be lost. To illustrate my point, Greenwich Leisure operates leisure facilities in all five London Olympic boroughs, and other London boroughs. It is a social enterprise, which means that its profits are ploughed back into developing community based sports facilities; it means that its governance is locally-based and controlled and that its whole focus is on providing great sports and leisure facilities for local, often poor and diverse communities in London. Already, Greenwich Leisure has started a ““kids swim free”” initiative as part of its Olympics endeavour. It will provide a special Olympic card for every London school pupil. There is no doubt that Greenwich Leisure and other community-based enterprises, like O-Regen, are perfect for ensuring that the link between training and employment is kept at local level and in a long-term investment in both the five Olympic boroughs and the wider London community. Greenwich Leisure and other local businesses are worried that if the procurement regime bundles contracts together without regard to local employment and impact, in some cases they will not even get the opportunity to tender properly. I was somewhat though not wholly reassured by the briefing received from the Mayor of London for tonight’s debate, which states that,"““contract and supply chain opportunities for businesses large and small””," will be addressed, and that,"““facilities for new jobs””," will be created. It must be the case that we need a supply of skilled people to do the necessary building. But London’s colleges have already missed the boat for this academic year. We need to see the investment for the courses being put in place now, to start in September 2006. However, my understanding is that the Learning and Skills Council is cutting back on its local delivery organisations in the capital and that the delivery of a skilled workforce might already be a challenge. So I hope that the LDA, the Olympics body and the Mayor are already battering on the door of the DfES about this. Perhaps a bit of joined-up government is needed here. In my final remarks I wish briefly to address the issue of London’s children and young people. The bid team took those wonderful youngsters with them to illustrate the youthful, modern, multiracial nature of London’s bid and London 2012. Having put children and young people at the heart of the bid, surely we need to put children and young people at the heart of delivery of the games. I have to ask, looking through all the documentation so far, where are the children and young people? I hope that as well as the sustainable and environmental measures that are planned, and those against which the games will be measures, we will also be looking for an input and a voice for London’s children and young people, because this is an opportunity to bring games and sports back into the lives of London’s schools and to establish for all London’s children the benefits that that would represent for the long-term health of a generation. We not only need to address the needs of the youngsters who we hope will reach the excellence and expertise that allow them to participate in the games in 2012, but we need to address the needs and expectations of all London’s children and young people. I wish the Bill well through your Lordships’ House and look forward to my noble friend the Minister’s response to this excellent debate.