London Olympics Bill

I agree with my hon. Friend on that point. The London Development Agency, the Mayor and the Minister will have to be assiduous not just in ensuring that all the Olympic facilities are developed, which is crucial, but that all the spin-offs go where they are intended to go. We told the world that our bid was on behalf of a multi-cultural city of London, and that it was about regeneration of a very poor part of our city. We must deliver not just on the glittering stadium but on all the other things, too. As a London MP, I also have a lot of sympathy with points made by colleagues from other parts of the country. While the games will obviously be held in London, and the major construction work will take place in London, we must ensure that the construction materials, prefabrication of buildings and so on are sourced from British-based companies operating in areas of high unemployment and problems, so that there is a real spin-off all around the country. As someone who grew up outside London, in the midlands, I can imagine people feeling, ““Here we go again. London is getting everything and the rest of the country is not benefiting.”” I am sure that the Minister is well aware of that, and it is up to Members of Parliament to ensure that their areas do benefit. I want to raise some specific items, and I hope that the Minister will reply to them. London’s transport infrastructure was a problem area for the bid, particularly in comparison with that of Paris. The Mayor is well aware, as is the Secretary of State, of the need for huge improvements in the underground and bus networks and such tram networks as will have been developed by that time. Crossrail will not have been completed by that time, so it will not have much effect. North and east London have a considerable network of railway lines. I am glad that they are no longer under threat of closure, as they were in the dark days when the Conservative party was in government, but rather have benefited from increased investment and increased usage, which is very welcome. I want the Minister to address the issue of the East London line, however. At the moment, the East London line extension, which has been approved, goes only as far as Dalston, whereas if it could be included in the Olympic development plan it could go through to Clapham junction, which would link up with facilities in south London that are to be used as part of the Olympic games. If it could be extended from Dalston junction to Highbury and Islington, it would link up with the Victoria line, and the spur off to Finsbury Park would link it up to the east coast main line. A direct tube network would therefore link east coast main line trains either at King’s Cross or stopping at Finsbury Park to go straight into the Olympic area. Such a short extension of the line would not be horrendously expensive, but it would be a valuable link within the rest of the London network. I have pressed that case on the Mayor and the Secretary of State, and such an approach seems highly logical at this stage. My other points relate to the creation of facilities around London that can be used to assist the Olympic games development. Currently, there is a shortage of swimming pools across London. My hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) will know that there is a splendid baths facility in Hornsey road in Islington, which was used as a training centre for the 1948 Olympics. Sadly, the baths have been closed, and a succession of developers have failed to develop the site. However, the building is still there, and more discussions are being held about it. The Hornsey road facility is the only 50 m pool in north London. We will need pools of that size for training purposes, and I urge the Minister to join me on a 91 bus trip to have a look at the baths together. I am sure that he will be bowled over and open his cheque book immediately to ensure the development of Hornsey road baths as a sports facility once again. Earlier, I asked the Secretary of State about local communities. A considerable artistic and creative community exists around Hackney Wick, Tower Hamlets and the Olympic area in general. That is partly due to economic factors, as the rent for artists’ studios and creative space there has always been relatively cheap, compared with the rest of London. I suppose that that is reminiscent of Hampstead in the 40s and 50s, since when the many artists who used to live there have been priced out. Artists, sculptors and people of a creative bent make up an important part of London life. It would not be a good Olympic legacy if they were all to be expelled from their low-cost facilities to make way for the games. I hope that the relevant authorities and the Mayor will remember that part of London’s creativity stems from all the art and artists that areas such as north-east London supply. I hope that real efforts are made to protect the conditions for artists and ensure that buildings removed to make way for Olympic sports facilities are replaced with equally cheap and accessible places for such people. In that way, we can maintain the wonderful ethnic and artistic diversity that is London. Most artists subsist on less than £8,000 a year, and so obviously have little chance of renting a studio in an expensive venue. My final general point is more global than local. It has to do with the conditions under which much sports equipment, such as shirts and clothing, is manufactured around the world. The sweatshop mentality behind the production of high street brand names can be traced back to child labour and sweated labour in south Asia, Indonesia and many other countries. There are serious campaigns demanding that the equipment and clothing that will be bought and used are manufactured on an ethical basis. I hope that the Secretary of State and the Olympic authorities will take those campaigns seriously. These games are about diversity, equality, fairness and accessibility, and the Government must ensure that all the clothing that is licensed and used comes from ethically sustainable sources. The equipment and clothing that is available should be manufactured in places that do not use sweated labour or employ workers in dangerous working conditions. Such items should be put together in places that have good employment practices and where unions are recognised and workers have rights—all the things that we want for ourselves.