Schools will be required to provide at least four hours of sport for pupils every week under plans outlined today by Gordon Brown.

His proposals envisage schools being opened during holidays and weekends to allow youngsters and older people to use their facilities.

The Chancellor, expected to take over as prime minister this summer, tells The Times that it is his intention that by 2010 every child would have the opportunity of four hours of sport a week, including more competitive sport. Schools would have to offer two hours of sport within the curriculum but also provide the means outside normal teaching hours for at least another two hours.

Mr Brown uses the interview to underline his determination to fulfil Labour’s 2005 manifesto pledge to give every child who wants it access to a further two or three hours of sport a week on top of two hours in school time.

The Chancellor wants to go further, however, by ensuring that a minimum of four hours of sport a week is the reality for most children in Britain, not just for those who want it or those in areas that already have good facilities.

He admits that more resources will have to be devoted to delivering that ambition, with more coaches, both voluntary and professional, provided to help children along the way.

Mr Brown is drawing up proposals for “extended schools”, under which better use would be made of their sports facilities. They would be made available to young people and the wider community in the early mornings, late afternoons and evenings, as well as at weekends and in the school holidays.

Under the Chancellor’s ideas every school closed this week for half term would still have its indoor and outdoor playing spaces open for use by local children and teenagers and available for hire by youth and community groups. He accepts that extra funding would be needed from local authorities and central government, charities and the private sector, and they would be staffed by trained youth volunteers.

The Chancellor has told government colleagues that he is especially concerned about access to sport for young people who are being drawn into crime. He sees an important role for partnership between government and professional sports clubs and leagues in transforming participation in sport in deprived areas, especially as an alternative to teenagers hanging around in gangs on street corners and on estates.

He wants to build on the community programmes being run by the Football Foundation, funded by the Premier League and the Government, with the participation of local police forces and big football clubs. He is in the advanced stage of talks with Richard Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, who accompanied Mr Brown on his recent trip to India, about increased funding for these programmes, targeted on the most deprived areas.

Mr Brown says in the interview that his memories of his school days are less about his academic studies than about the sports teams in which he was involved and he remembers the joy of being picked for the school rugby team. He says that there is now no shortage of young people coming through the system who want to be sport coaches and calls on schools to seize the opportunity for introducing a greater degree of professionalism into school sports.

It was not just vital for improving the nation’s fitness and tackling obesity but “also about people’s development as individuals, playing as a member of team”. As well as volunteers, mothers and fathers would be increasingly encouraged to get involved.

“I am a believer in competitive sports,” Mr Brown said. “I think people do better when challenged and you are challenged when involved in teams and comeptitions.”

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