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Olympic Games 2012: Finance

Volume 493: debated on Wednesday 3 June 2009

To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many organisations at (a) national, (b) regional and (c) local level are receiving Olympic legacy funding; and how much has been disbursed at each level in the latest period for which figures are available. (277477)

The Legacy Trust UK (LTUK) was established to support a wide range of innovative cultural and sporting projects, which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and leave a lasting legacy in communities throughout the United Kingdom. The trust was established using a £40 million endowment from the Big Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Since its inception LTUK has awarded a total of £30 million in grants. £6 million has been committed for the staging of the UK School Games, which are run by the Youth Sports Trust, between 2008 and 2011.

Some £24 million has been committed to 12 nations’ and regions’ organisations to run various cultural projects as follows:

Nation/region

£ million

North West

3.02

North East

1.53

Yorkshire and Humber

2.24

West Midlands

2.2

East Midlands

1.61

East of England

1.51

South West

1.61

South East

1.923

London

2.89

Wales

1.67

Scotland

2.57

Northern Ireland

1.31

Total

24.083

For a nation or region to receive a grant from LTUK, strict funding criteria have been applied, including a requirement to set up an advisory group, made up of a range of sporting and cultural organisations, which is responsible for the managing and distribution of the money within that region.

The LTUK is currently finalising their plans for the remaining funds to support three more national initiatives, with announcements expected shortly.

To ask the Minister for the Olympics what grants have been made from the £2.7 billion Olympic contingency fund; and of those which have been allocated to the (a) programme and (b) funded stream. (277516)

[holding answer 1 June 2009]: Of the total £2.7 billion contingency, £238 million is for wider policing and security and is controlled by the Home Office. £500 million was allocated to the ODA as part of its baseline budget, as announced in December 2007.

The remaining £1.9 billion is split between funders and programme contingency. Contingency releases to the ODA are reported in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Annual Reports and Quarterly Economic Reports, the first of which was published on 13 May 2009, and are summarised as follows:

Contingency (£ million)

Funders

Programme

September 2008

Various—balance of funding gap after savings

21.5

November 2008

Olympic Stadium (primary strengthening)

8.2

Handball arena (acoustics & HD lighting)

2.3

December 2008

Handball area (capacity)

2.4

Olympic stadium (blast hardening)

0.7

January 2009

Olympic Village and IBC/MPC

394.0

67.0

VAT reduction & inflation savings

(101.0)

February 2009

Stratford City/Olympic Village infrastructure

111.0

May 2009

Olympic Village

150.0

111.0

Total released

446.2

237.7

Balance remaining

557.8

730.3

The quarterly economic update published in May 2009 reported that an additional £324 million had been invested in the Olympic Village. This was made up of £261 million contingency shown above together with £63 million of savings achieved from across the ODA programme. It is expected that the whole £324 million will be recovered from future apartment sales.