Watchdog warns of financial hurdles ahead for games

08 February 2007
 
Substantial further public funding is likely to be required in addition to the £2.4bn agreed to deliver the Olympic Games, according to Government financial watchdog the National Audit Office.
The lack of a final agreed budget is ‘a major risk to the successful delivery of the Olympic Games’, the NAO’s report on preparations for the 2012 Games concludes. As well as the £900M cost increase reported by culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, in November, there are ‘a number of areas of uncertainty that need to be resolved quickly’. Key areas of concern include the Government’s acknowledgement that there is little prospect of levering in £750M in private sector investment as hoped, and the fact that security costs are likely to be substantially higher than the original estimate of £190M. Without an agreed final budget, the ODA currently has to make decisions about funding for individual projects without knowing how much money will be available in total.
‘The longer there’s a lack of an agreed budget, the greater the risk of it having an adverse impact on the Olympic programme.’
This includes decisions on transport schemes – estimated to cost £466M in total when the bid was drawn up.
Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, warned: ‘Failure in any one area of the programme will impinge on others.’
London Councils chairman Cllr Merrick Cockell welcomed the report, and said boroughs would protect residents from being used ‘as the piggy bank which is raided to cover the added costs’.

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