Carter heads for Sport England

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The Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has appointed the businessman Patrick Carter as the new chair of Sport England. Carter has been variously described as ‘hatchet man’, ‘troubleshooter’ and ‘Mr fix-it’, having authored three financial reports for the Government on highly sensitive sporting issues: his review of progress on the Manchester Commonwealth Games led to the award of an extra £105m for the games; his national stadium report produced a final thumbs-up from the government for the redevelopment of Wembley; and his scrutiny of Pickett’s Lock as a venue for the 2005 World Athletics Championships led Tessa Jowell to kill off the plan soon after she took over at the DCMS.

Refuting rumours that Carter, who built and then sold his own successful private healthcare business, does not like sport, a DCMS official said, ‘We think he plays tennis.’ The appointment certainly meets the desire of Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, to see the Sport England role filled by a businessman rather than a sporting celebrity. Carter will receive £26,000 a year for his two-day-a-week role, and is expected to be closely involved in the forthcoming announcement of an interim chief executive for Sport England. Caborn himself in a recent interview with the Independent on Sunday seemed to suggest that he might favour legislative changes to lottery law to favour more funding for sport. He also, in the same interview, poured cold water on Camelot’s Lotto ad campaign, suggesting that Billy Connolly was a mistake. ‘Someone like Steve Redgrave would have been better. People can identify with a winner like him.’