Work is still under way on a number of issues, including security, contingency and the question of tax liability. I hope to be able to make an announcement in due course, when this work is concluded.
Reductions in the region of £235 million were identified in the costs of Infrastructure and Legacy Conversion in the period July to October 2004.
The remit of the Budget and Revenues Sub-Group (February 2004 to July 2004) was to look at the costs, revenues and strategic issues affecting the proposed Olympic budget prior to the bid. The notes of the meetings of the sub-group contain information which is directly relevant to current commercial negotiations which could be prejudiced by its release.
The Government are considering how additional Olympic costs should be met. No conclusion has yet been reached about any further lottery contribution to the Games.
Work is still under way on a number of issues, including security, contingency and the question of tax liability. I hope to be able to make an announcement in due course, when this work is concluded.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report excluded VAT and did not provide advice on it. PwC have confirmed that in respect of the construction of new venues their report included an allowance for contingencies and preliminaries amounting to 23.5 per cent. This assumption was reflected in the Candidate File. PwC made no recommendation about additional programme contingency. The figure of £272 million in the redacted version of the report in the House Library is PwC’s assessment of the aggregate level of project contingency, including venues and infrastructure, at 2004 prices.