Government defends itself against accusations of overspending on 2012 Games

[richard]

The Government has accused critics of unfairly skewing figures that suggest nationwide spending on the London 2012 Olympics had spiralled out of control to £24 billion.

Sky News says a compilation of costs not included in the public sector funding package comes to an extra £2.4 billion but when the counter-terrorism budget, intelligence and security costs, extra policing and transport upgrades are included the total comes to just over £24bn.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman insisted the publicly-funded budget remains at £9.3bn, including all security, defence and public transport provision for the Games.

"It is simply not right to start adding on top of that budgets that would have been in existence regardless of 2012 and claim that as being an Olympic cost," the spokesman said.

"We have always been transparent about the cost of the Games and have rigorously managed the budget to ensure the programme remains within the £9.3bn.

"London 2012 is an investment in our country that is already bringing in economic benefits that would otherwise not have been possible.

"It is an incredible opportunity for the United Kingdom – not a burden."

When London bid for the Olympics in 2005 the predicted costs came in at £2.37bn, a figure that was revised upwards to £9.3bn following a review in 2007.

But this figure doesn't include other Olympic related costs such as:

• Olympic Park land costing £766m which has recently been revalued at just over £200m
• Legacy programmes of £826m
• Olympic bonuses to transport staff such as 13,000 tube drivers paid £500 payment each
• £6.5m Government Operations work departmental costs
• £86m Government Olympic Executive
• £300m costs of the Olympic Park Legacy
• £40m costs towards the Olympic Park by local borough Newham
• £298,000 incurred by UK Anti Doping on specific costs related to the Olympics
• £29m extra to UK Sport back in 2008 for the Olympic Games
• £22m Sport England Active Person survey to measure the legacy promises of getting 1 million more people playing sport.

There has also been fast-tracking of upgrades to key tourist venues such as Leicester Square and the upgrade of Piccadilly Circus in London to make it more pedestrian friendly and local council costs sprucing up areas for Olympic tourists have exceeded £3.5m.

A further £12m has been committed by councils in relation to festivities of the Olympic torch relay.

Sky News said they did not include large costs that would have been spent regardless of the Olympics such as the counter-terrorism budget of £1.131bn over the next two years, the Security and Intelligence Agency's annual budget of £2.1bn for 2011/12 and 2012/12 (with £0.2bn spent on cyber security for two years), and £6.5 billion spent on improving transport capacity for the Games.

The running costs of the Olympic and Paralympic Games are borne out of the Locog budget of £2.15bn, which comes from ticket sales, merchandise, television broadcast fees and sponsorship.


Source
By Jacquelin Magnay
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph