Grassroots sport and national teams could be cut back due to “shoestring” budgets over the past decade, a Senedd committee has heard.

Andrew Howard, chief executive of the Welsh Sports Association, which represents 140 organisations, said the sector has faced real-terms cuts nearly every year since 2012.

Appearing before the Senedd’s culture committee on 24 October, he said: “We’ve seen redundancies and recruitment freezes across the sector.

“We’ve lost some really good people who have either gone across to England to work in sport or left the sport sector altogether.

“There’s a real concern about the future viability of some of our sports and that has led to a bit of an exodus in terms of staff as well.”