MD1648 Hockey – additional grant funding

Background

The success of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has cemented London’s position as a world-leading host of major sporting events. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has also added significantly to the range of world class sporting facilities available for hosting events in London. A key part of the on-going legacy of London 2012 is ensuring that these facilities and others around London be regularly and fully made use of.

London has already secured a portfolio of additional events for the years ahead that will help sustain our position as a world-leading host and is in keeping with the stated legacy aims from London 2012, one of which is to ensure that the facilities built for the Games continue to be used to stage high-level international sporting events. They include the 2015 Rugby World Cup, 2015 European Hockey Championships, 2015 Formula E Championships, 2016 European Swimming Championships, 2016 Track Cycling World Championships, 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships and IPC World Athletics Championships.

Recognising that most major sporting events require some level of public support, the GLA allocated £2.4 million over four years to future major sporting events as part of the 2014/15 budget setting process. This Major Sports Events Fund supports the Mayor’s major sporting events strategy for London, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’, which was published in April 2014.

This new London-wide approach to bidding for and supporting major sporting events establishes the Mayor’s Office as the first point of call for anyone looking to bring their event to London, and firmly establishes the Mayor’s Office as London’s strategic lead for major sporting events.

Hockey bids

In August 2013, some months prior to the agreement of the £2.4 million major events budget mentioned above, the Mayor signed MD1265. This MD authorised the GLA to support England Hockey’s bid to bring the 2016 Champions’ Trophy, the 2017 World League Semi Finals, and the 2018 Women’s World Cup to London. It also committed up to £600,000 towards the costs of staging these events, should the bid be successful.

This £600,000 was to be allocated from the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme (£500k) and the GLA Central Programme Budget (£100k).

England Hockey had requested a grant of £900,000 from the GLA across the three events. However, at the time of the bid submission, existing GLA budgets were limited to offering no more than the £600,000 outlined in the previous paragraph. Therefore, in addition to the £600,000 grant, MD1265 notes a commitment on behalf of the GLA to work with England Hockey to secure a further £300,000 towards the staging costs for the 2018 Women’s World Cup.

In November 2013, the International Hockey Federation announced the England Hockey’s bid to host the three events had been successful.

Proposal to offer England Hockey a further £300,000 in grant funding

The main purpose of this MD is to authorise the grant funding of an additional £300,000 to England Hockey, to go towards the staging costs for the 2018 Women’s World Cup. This would bring the total award across the three events to £900,000 – in line with what England Hockey had originally requested.

There are two main reasons for making this award.

First, the fact that we did not award them £900,000 in 2013 was purely a function of the fact that the major sports events budget had not yet been formally signed off. If the bids could have been submitted a few months later, by which point the budget had been agreed, we would have offered the full £900,000. With this in mind, the GLA Sports team has retained sufficient funds within the major sports events budget to be able to make this additional award.

Second, the market for raising sponsorship for major sporting events is extremely challenging at present, making it highly unlikely that England Hockey, working with the GLA, would be able to generate the additional income initially envisaged in MD1265. To attempt to raise this money would be labour intensive, would require paid-for agency support, and would quite possibly be fruitless. It would also distract England Hockey from the key task of successfully staging the event.

It is worth noting that this total award of £900,000 across the three events compares very favourably to the level of investment being provided to the events by central government via UK Sport. UK Sport grant funding across the three events total £1.82 million.

All funding to come from the major sports events budget

MD1265 states that £500,000 will be provided from the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Fund. However, with the subsequent agreement of a dedicated budget for major sporting events, it is more appropriate that the funding for these hockey events is in fact drawn from the major sports events budget.

This MD therefore seeks recognition of the fact that grant funding to England Hockey in relation to these events will be drawn from the major sports events budget, and not from the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme.

As the proposed funding stretches into the new Mayoralty, the funding agreement to be entered into will contain a break clause enabling the GLA to terminate the agreement by serving 30 days’ notice.

The objectives of the proposed funding are to:

• Support the successful hosting of a series of international hockey events in London;
• Support delivery of the Mayor’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• Increase economic investment into London;
• Increase international exposure of London;
• Increase opportunities for Londoners to participate in sport and physical exercise programmes associated with major sporting events;
• Assist the Mayor in delivering his commitment to a lasting sports legacy following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• Increase opportunities for Londoners to volunteer at a major sporting events;

3.1. Every major event that seeks financial support from the GLA must demonstrate how the event will engage with the local community, in line with the Mayor’s grassroots sport policy, ‘A Sporting Future for London’ and the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme.

3.2 An equalities impact assessment has previously been undertaken on the overall Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme.

3.3 According to the most recent Sport England Active People survey (APS 8 published in January 2015), levels of participation in sport and physical activity are variable across different socio-demographic groups in London. Across all 33 London Boroughs, average figures indicate that 43% of men participate in sport at least once a week compared to 32% of women. 37% of Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) people participate weekly compared to 39% of people of white origin. 19% of disabled people participate weekly compared to 40% of non-disabled people. 17% of people over the age of 65 participate weekly compared to 52% of those between the age of 16 and 25. 41% of people from socio-economic groups 1 to 4 participate weekly compared to 25% of people from socio-economic groups 5-8 (based on the National Statistics Socio-economic classification system).

3.4 Sports programmes supported by the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme engage significant numbers of women, disabled people, BAME people and people from lower socio-economic groups, both via sports participation programmes and training opportunities. We are seeking to increase participation opportunities for these groups through the Major Sports Events Engagement Fund that this event has also bid to.

4.1 Risk/mitigation

It is proposed that any financial contribution from the GLA be capped with financial underwriting risk being held by England Hockey. England Hockey’s representatives are comfortable in taking this (proportionate) financial risk due to their experience in staging other international events in UK and London.

As with all sporting events, there is a risk that these events will not sell enough tickets to meet budget, or that sponsorship targets will be missed. However, these risks have been significantly mitigated by the successful hosting of the European Hockey Championships in Summer 2015, at the same venue – Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre – that will host these three events. The European Championships were operationally very sound and sold more tickets than anticipated, demonstrating the strength of the hockey fanbase and the attractiveness of the venue. It also demonstrated the organisational capability of England Hockey to delivery successful world-class events in line with budget and expectation.

4.2 Links to Mayoral Strategies & Priorities

GLA support for the event will:

• support delivery of the Mayor’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• support the aims of ‘Inclusive and Active 2’ strategy for increasing participation in sport and physical activity amongst disabled people in London;
• support delivery of the Mayor’s grassroots sport policy, ‘A Sporting Future for London’;
• assist in meeting the objectives of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy;
• promote social development in London;
• assist the Mayor in delivering his commitment to a lasting sports legacy following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• support the Mayor’s priorities around volunteering and his Team London programme.

Of most significance amongst these is the support that these events will provide to the goal of increasing participation in sport. Alongside the events, England Hockey, in partnership with the GLA, Sport England and other stakeholders, have developed a large-scale community engagement programme focused on getting more Londoners active and involved in hockey. This three-year programme will see more clubs being established, more coaches trained, and more inactive Londoners introduced to regular participation. England Hockey will report regularly to the GLA on progress to ensure that this key outcome is delivered.

4.3 Impact Assessments and Consultations

4.3.1 An equalities impact assessment has previously been undertaken on the overall Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme. Further information is available at Section 3 of this document.

4.3.2 In writing ‘A Sporting Future for London’, the GLA Sports Unit consulted extensively with over 400 individuals from over 100 different groups and organisations including national governing bodies of sport, the Pro-Active Partnerships, senior representatives from local authorities and a wide variety of sports clubs and community organisations.

4.3.3 The conclusions reached received broad support from all key stakeholders and reaction to the plan itself has been very positive.

4.3.4 In writing ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’, the GLA Sports Unit consulted extensively with various national governing bodies of sport in the UK, Sport England, UK Sport, London Sport, relevant Local Authorities, LLDC, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, London & Partners, sports venue owners in London and Transport for London. The strategy has been greatly welcomed by all key London stakeholders and partners, as well as the key national agencies identified above.

5.1 Approval is being sought for expenditure of £300,000 from the existing GLA’s major sports events fund towards the costs of delivery of the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup.

5.2 This funding of £300,000 will be in addition to the £600,000 committed in MD1265. The £600,000 is to be allocated from the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme (£500k) and the GLA Central Programme Budget (£100k).

5.3 Any changes to this proposal, including budgetary implications will be subject to the Authority’s decision-making process.

6.1 Sections 1-4 of this report indicate that:

6.1.1 the decisions requested of the mayor (in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code) fall within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation and social development in Greater London; and

6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people (;
• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

• consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 In addition, under section 378 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 the GLA has a duty to promote tourism to Greater London and holding of the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup in London can fairly be described as an event that will promote tourism to London.

6.3 Officers have indicated in the report above that the contribution to the recipient, England Hockey amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in manner which affords value for money in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code.

Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and recipient before any commitment to fund is made.