When Hugh Robertson was appointed Minister for Sport and the Olympics in May this year, he was clear that one of his main priorities was to put in place a sports legacy plan that would use the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to boost mass sports participation in this country.

I was delighted that he handed responsibility for the development and delivery of that plan to Sport England, supported by increased National Lottery funding as a result of the Government's Lottery reforms.

Over the past five months, we have worked closely with The British Olympic Association (BOA), British Paralympic Association (BPA) and The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to develop a programme which we believe will bring the magic and inspiration of the Games to communities and individuals right across England.

We needed it to focus on the many not the few, no matter how good - or not - you are at sport, and wherever you live in the country. It also needed to create something that people could see and touch – and said clearly that something arrived because the Olympic and Paralympic Games came to London.

Earlier today, the Places People Play programme was announced by the Olympic and Paralympic stakeholders at Little Venice Sports Centre in London.

Unveiled by the Minister, the programme will bring the sporting legacy to life in communities across the country, answering London 2012's Singapore promise to inspire a new generation to play sport. In what we know are challenging times, the £135 million ($217 million) investment will be made in areas which we know will have a lasting impact on the sporting behaviours and habits of millions of people for years after the Games.

Our Places investment will transform the facilities where people play sport, making the benefits of 2012 visible in cities, towns and villages across the country. The clubs and centres that receive investment will be the only ones to carry the London 2012 Inspire mark, a permanent celebration of their role in the legacy of the Games.

Through the Inspired Facilities Fund, we will upgrade up to a thousand local sports clubs and facilities, providing much-needed investment for new roofs, floodlights, pitch drainage and many more things which we know are so important in delivering a high-quality sporting experience.

We will also protect and improve hundreds of playing fields across the country, enhancing our existing role as a statutory consultee by securing the future of many sites for a minimum of 25 years; and, through our Iconic Facilities Fund, we will invest in a number of iconic multi-sport facilities that set the standards for future facilities development - sustainable in their operations and focused upon their users.

Yet facilities are no good without people - the People strand of our programme addresses the fact that many sports tell us there is a gap for leaders at the local level - the people who organise the leagues, lead the cycle rides, take the basic training sessions and lead the running groups. Over the next two years, supported by the BOA and BPA, we will recruit, train and deploy 40,000 sports leaders as the next generation of sports volunteers, to organise and lead grassroots sporting activities, in the places and the sports which need them most.

And then all we need are the participants – to play and enjoy sport, using the inspiration of the Games to cement their sporting habit. Our Sportivate programme will provide opportunities for teenagers and young adults to receive six weeks of coaching in the sport of their choice, with the intent of guiding them into regular participation within their community.

We are also supporting the Gold Challenge – an independent initiative that will motivate over 100,000 adults to test themselves in multiple Olympic and Paralympic sports, and in doing so raise millions of pounds for charity. National governing bodies of sport will provide the opportunities to benefit from high-quality coaching and testing events.

This is a Paralympic legacy too - so we will be consulting disabled people and those who support them on how we can focus some additional investment - at least £8m - on the barriers they face when they want to play sport, as well as making sure that every element of this programme works for disabled sportsmen and women.

This is a programme which we can deliver now – and see the benefits delivered for many years after the Games. We believe that it will touch over two million people, provide over 50 million sessions of sport. It will leave behind over a thousand new or improved facilities, and 40,000 extra sports leaders – and most importantly of all it will deliver on the promise made in 2005 in Singapore.

Richard Lewis is the chairman of Sport England