Tony Blair has admitted privately that Labour's efforts to boost the number of people taking up sport have failed and he has instructed Ministers to prepare an ambitious 'interventionist' fitness strategy linked to the Olympics bid.
The biggest-ever initiative to turn Britain into a nation that enjoys exercise will begin in the new year, with a £1 million publicity campaign showing how gardening, walking to work and even housework can help to make you fit.
Number 10 is convinced it must act decisively amid mounting evidence that the obesity epidemic among children and young adults will leave a massive health bill from diabetes and heart disease within 15 years.
In a letter to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, a copy of which has been leaked to The Observer, Blair spells out what he sees as the Government's failure to promote exercise: 'Government policy has not delivered the outcomes we want in this area,' he writes. 'We have started to make progress on the school sport agenda, but also need to more effectively tackle activity levels in the adult population.'
Referring to the Government's long-term target of getting 70 per cent of people physically active by 2020, the letter, written in July, states: 'We need an ambitious delivery strategy, using the Olympic bid as a catalyst, to develop more innovative and interventionist policies across the public, private and voluntary sectors in both health and sport if that target is to be achieved.'
The approach will be controversial, as critics will accuse Blair of taking a nanny-state attitude to try to change lifestyles. It is likely to result in GPs being encouraged to write out prescriptions for the gym for the overweight, instead of handing out drugs. Schools will also play a pivotal role. Education authorities that make it easier for children to walk to school may be rewarded, as will those that meet targets for offering more sports out of hours.
The Observer has been campaigning for children to be given at least two hours of sport a week at school, amid growing dismay over the low levels of physical activity on offer in most schools. A report from the Health Development Agency last week showed that one in 10 six-year-olds and one in five 15-year-olds are dangerously overweight.
Adults are also becoming progressively more lethargic, with about half the population doing little or no sport. One of the big disappointments for Ministers is that, despite building £1.6 billion worth of sports centres with lottery money over the past nine years, participation in sport has risen by only 0.3 per cent. Inner-city teenagers are the worst affected.
Blair makes clear he wants to see a strategy devised by Jowell and Health Secretary John Reid that will not only provide more gyms, sports halls and specialist teachers but also 'a strategy for driving up demand, based on compelling evidence of what works'.
He also wants to focus 'on the opportunities the Olympic bid presents us, as well as the challenges'. He adds: 'We need a more energetic and proactive government leadership if our ambitions to drive up participation in physical activity and sport are to be more than just words.'
The bid for the 2012 Olympics will see intensive lobbying for Britain next year, and it is hoped that talk about a sporting nation will fire public interest.
Ministers and civil servants have formed an Activity Co-ordination Team, linking nine government departments, to come up with ideas. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling is looking at how to encourage people out of their cars and on to pavements or cycles, while the Environment Minister is examining ways of opening up more countryside footpaths.
By April, a plan to make the nation more active should be ready for publication. The team is looking at possible tax breaks for joining gyms. But Ministers admit they face a struggle in persuading the public they are not unnecessarily interfering in their lives.
Professor Ken Fox, a leading expert on physical activity, said: 'People's perceptions of whether or not they are any good at sport are set remarkably early in school. Too many label themselves "unsporty" and give up altogether.
'We need to give them very accessible examples of what you can do to keep fit. It's about feeling good about yourself, and sport is just a part of that.'
