I don't know about you, but I love sport. As a young boy I was a keen gymnast, runner and rugby player. I still coach gymnastics and train regularly in my local gym.
My current work finds me involved in community work, and by association, urban regeneration issues. So on the face of it, I should be loving the fact that the Olympics are coming to London.
But there are fears that lottery money will be diverted towards the Olympics at the sacrifice of many highly effective community projects. As well as a sports enthusiast, I am a council-tax-paying Londoner, so the current controversy over the spiralling costs of the games is becoming a personal issue. Now, if I thought my taxes were going to regenerate a corner of London and provide young people with a long-lasting investment in sports and fostering sustainable communities, I would be all for it. The problem is that a lot of urban regeneration involves a rebuilding of the fabric of an area, but not the people, which is where real regeneration needs to be done. It is not enough to built grand, shiny new stadia, if young people are not going to be offered full access with qualified coaches and a programme designed to promote sport and the health benefits of physical activity.
Any such programme takes years to come to fruition, and I wonder whether the powers that be have the kind of stamina to see that through. Also, we have yet to receive any firm indication on how the Olympics will benefit communities outside of east London.
This is possibly the biggest investment that will be made for the future of young people. The cost of housing across the capital is prohibitive for so many people. Anything that can ease the financial pain of future generations is a welcome addition to the London landscape. But what we need is high value, not cheap housing. By this I mean housing developments that lend themselves to building sustainable communities where families can prosper.
I live in West London, where a huge housing estate was built for the 1908 Olympics and was then left to fall into disrepair with a community struggling to survive. Let's hope this is not the kind of legacy that is left by the 2012 Olympics.
Shaun Bailey runs MyGeneration, a charity that helps young people and their families, and is a research fellow for the Centre for Young Policy Studies, shaun.bailey@haymarket.com.
