Alliance comment: Sport England's funding withdrawal announcement

Sport England has announced today that they are withdrawing £2.8 million of funding from six national governing bodies – The FA, England Golf Partnership, England Netball, England Hockey, British Mountaineering Council and British Rowing.

Andy Reed, Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance said:

"The past twelve months have been particularly difficult for outdoor sports. As well as the terrible weather over the winter, councils are ramping up facility hire charges to make up for shortfalls in their budgets and simple economics will tell you that that dampens demand. It doesn't make sense in the long term but local authorities are having to make some tough choices about what they can afford now.

 "The danger is that by withdrawing money from governing body programmes and initiatives, we create a downward spiral of participation. The less investment governing bodies can make, the fewer people they can reach. And the fewer people they can reach, the greater the danger that participation will carry on falling.

 "Governing bodies need investment to innovate – and that's exactly what they've been doing. But it's not just participation that they support. Their clubs and programmes are focal points for their communities, they introduce and develop volunteers, they build social capital and help increase educational attainment – all of which is much harder to capture than participation figures but just as important."

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