London Olympics Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention and I echo his comments. I think he will find that the elements of the Bill that outlaw ticket touting for the Olympics will go some way to ensuring that what he hopes will be the case for his constituents. It was the cross-party support for the London 2012 bid that went some way to ensuring and convincing the IOC that Britain was united in its ambition to host the Olympic and Paralympic games. It is with the same spirit of co-operation that we approach the Bill and all other legislation that may be needed in order to deliver the games. We all know the potential that the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics have to transform London and the lives of so many young people throughout Britain. We hear the phrase ““a lasting legacy”” used on many occasions when talking about London 2012. It underpinned the whole of our bid. That legacy is twofold. There is of course the opportunity to regenerate one of London’s poorest and most rundown areas, although in doing so it is important to ensure that those displaced by the project are properly compensated. I hope that the Secretary of State will have recognised from the interventions from my hon. Friends the Members for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) and for Croydon, South (Richard Ottaway) that there is still considerable concern about the issue among those businesses and others who will find themselves displaced by the regeneration. So there is that opportunity to provide low-cost housing to thousands of families, to improve transport and infrastructure links and to build some of the world’s finest sporting facilities for years to come. Those are all matters that the Bill has the power to deliver. What the Bill does not address is the part of the bid that so impressed the IOC delegates: the commitment to inspire thousands of young people throughout the country and indeed the world; to bring something into the lives of boys and girls, to give them a reason to work harder, something to aim for—the thought that perhaps they could be standing on the podium collecting Olympic gold in 2012. On the Saturday after the bid success was announced my swimming teacher, who is herself a British world championship triathlete, talked about her son, who rows for Reading Bluecoat school in my constituency, which managed to qualify for the Henley regatta for the first time ever this year. She hoped that the bid success would inspire him—that if he works hard he could be there in 2012. That is the spirit of enthusiasm, optimism and dedication that we want to encourage by having the Olympics in London. However, those aspects are not dealt with in the Bill, and we shall be looking to the Government for further reassurances that they are putting in place the mechanisms that will deliver on that promise to our young sportsmen and women, not only to those who may be Olympic athletes of the future, and encourage an interest in sport and a healthy lifestyle as an offshoot and a legacy of the Olympic games.