Sport England launches consultation on sports lottery grant making

Sport England today launched a public consultation to make sure future projects like the recently announced Crompton Street Sports Centre can access up to £45 million of sports lottery funding as quickly and simply as possible.

Sport England would like to hear from people who play sport, from clubs, voluntary groups, local authorities and other key stakeholders to get a view on how the process of applying for sports Lottery funding can be improved.

Anybody can access the consultation online at www.sportengland.org/consultation, and hard copies are available on request by calling the consultation help line on 0845 850 8508 or e-mailing consultation@sportengland.org.  

The public consultation starts today and runs for 12 weeks, closing on 16 September 2008.

Jennie Price, Sport England Chief Executive, said

“Sport England is committed to getting our funding processes right.  We want to make it simple and quick for people who have projects that meet our criteria to access Lottery money.

“I am keen to hear from as many people as possible to inform our decision-making and influence the way we distribute our National Lottery funding so that it makes a real difference to the future of sport in England.”

Ends

Notes to editors

Sport England has invested over £2.2 billion in community sport since the start of the National Lottery in 1994 and is set to invest another £1 billion before the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sport England currently operates the Community Investment Fund and this remains open until any final conclusions from the consultation have been made.

Sport England is a non-departmental public body and National Lottery distributor. We are committed to creating a world leading community sports development system and increasing participation in sport. Sport England’s annual budget (lottery and exchequer) is c£250m.

For more information please contact the communications team: Peter Dickinson on 020 7273 1822, Alex Russell on 020 7273 1866, or Andrew St Ledger on 020 7273 1593.