Sport England extends freeze

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Sport England has extended its freeze on lottery grant-making until September 2003 at the earliest, in acknowledgement of its serious cash-flow position. The distributor is shedding staff in line with the new business plan, from 570 to 400, and is shifting the balance of staff from HQ to regional offices.

The new regional boards, which under the business plan should have been up and running in charge of new devolved grant-making powers from April 1, are in most cases not even yet appointed. But it hardly matters: there are no funds for the regions to allocate. Instead, grant-making is on hold, and it looks likely that even existing commitments will be reviewed so that funds earmarked for projects that are not progressing on schedule may be reallocated. An announcement is expected from Sport England on this after its council meets in mid April. Sport England was over-committed by £322m as of September 2002 – equal to one year’s lottery income. This figure should have reduced somewhat since grant-making was frozen midway through December, shortly after Patrick Carter took over as chair.

Roger Draper, brought in last year from the Lawn Tennis Association as deputy chief executive, has been confirmed as Sport England’s new CEO.