The scheme, launched by former Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell in June 2008, to provide free swimming for the under-16s and over-60s and was supposed to be one key legacies of London 2012, was scrapped shortly after Labour lost the General Election as part of £73 million ($108 million) worth of cuts announced by the new Government.

Hunt has laid the blame squarely at the feet of the former Government for spending well beyond their means and claimed he has been left "fighting fire" in an attempt to ensure that there is a tangible legacy for the London 2012 Games.

Hunt exclusively told insidethegames: "I was as disappointed as they (the Amateur Swimming Association) were that we couldn’t afford to continue with the free swimming but the truth is that we had a lot of programmes that the last Government committed to without actually finding the funds to do it.

"That deficit is their legacy and we are having to deal with that so I’m fighting fire to try and make sure that we do have a lasting Olympic legacy in the very difficult financial circumstances we’re in."

Hunt added that the controversial merger of UK Sport, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust is a major part of the cost cutting measures he is having to make but promised that the new body set to oversee the organisation of sport in this country post London 2012 will not damage the way sport in Britain is run.  

He said: "What we don’t want to do is to affect our sporting output but what we do want to do is to make sure that the resources we put in are used properly because theses are very tough times.

"I’m having to come up with scenarios with 25 and 40 per cent cuts and I want to make sure that every penny is spent on sport and not on bureaucracy and administration.

"I think we have got into a situation where have got too many quangos and I’ve announced plans that will see the 55 quangos I’m responsible for reduced down to around 38.

"I think that is really because I want money to be used on what taxpayers want it to be used for which is to get more people, particularly young people, playing sport.

"So that’s the only motive behind it (the merger of Sport, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust) and I’m very confident that we’ll be able to work with the sporting bodies to make a new model work."

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