Monday 21 June 2004

On 29 May 2002, my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton advised the House of Lords that English Partnerships (EP) had entered into legally binding conditional contracts with Meridian Delta Ltd (MDL), a consortium consisting of Lend Lease and Quintain Estates and Development plc, and Anschutz Entertainment Group (Anschutz), for the future use of the Dome and development of approximately 190 acres of land on the Greenwich peninsula. Since then, planning permission and other consents have had to be secured under the terms of the May 2002 contracts, but I am pleased to be able to advise the House today that the conditions attached to those contracts have been satisfied and the overall transaction has gone unconditional. That is a major milestone in the regeneration of the Greenwich peninsula and the growth of the Thames Gateway.

The long-term benefits that we have secured for future generations of Londoners are a fitting legacy for the Dome project and for the public investment that has gone into the Greenwich peninsula. £4 billion worth of private sector investment, including a £550 million cash return over the next 20 years, will bring new jobs, new homes, new services and infrastructure to London. That is a fantastic result, and it reflects the commitment and vision of all our private and public sector partners. Every £1 of public money on the peninsula has attracted over £6 from the private sector.

The timetable going forward is now as follows: during the summer, Anschutz will appoint a contractor for the construction of the new arena inside the Dome, for work to start in spring 2005; and at the same time MDL will submit to Greenwich Council a planning application for Millennium Square, the major new public space proposed next to the Dome. MDL expects contractors to start delivering early infrastructure works to facilitate the wider development late in 2004 and, once detailed planning permission has been secured for the first phases, start of work on the housing and other facilities is expected in late 2005 or early 2006. Construction of the arena is expected to be completed in spring 2007, together with other leisure uses under the Dome roof, the plans for which Anschutz will he working up in the coming months. Millennium Square will be completed within the same timetable, and the residential development will be well under way by the time the new arena opens for business in 2007. This stage has been reached only through considerable effort and close co-operation among a number of private and public sector partners.

English Partnerships has secured contracts that are set to deliver an exemplar sustainable community and a fabulous addition to London's entertainment facilities. EP will continue to work in partnership with the developers as work progresses and land belonging to EP, Quintain and other third parties is drawn down for development. The London Borough of Greenwich granted planning permission on 23 February 2004 for the development and was robust in securing a highly valuable package of measures of public benefit through the Section 106 agreement negotiations and related matters. The Mayor of London, through several of his functions and organisations—primarily Transport for London—has been instrumental in facilitating the planning permission and in completing elements of the contractual negotiations. MDL and Anschutz have both invested substantial time and considerable money already in preparing the physical plans and developing other matters in preparation for a long period of activity in developing the site and creating the sustainable community and a magnificent new entertainment hub for London.

The development will see the creation of an estimated 24,000 new jobs; the building of over 10,000 new homes, 3,800 of which will be social rented, low-cost and family units; significant infrastructural improvements; 48 acres of open spaces and parkland; and the building of new community and healthcare facilities, including new schools. All of that will lead to the wider regeneration of the local area and beyond. Some £4 billion of private sector investment is expected from this transaction alone, and, throughout the peninsula, every £1 of public sector investment will lever in over £6 of private sector money.

The development will continue the innovation and high quality established at the Millennium Village and elsewhere on the peninsula. The village is already paving the way on high-density living, achieving new levels of energy efficiency, creating the high-quality environment that is needed, and providing integrated services through the new school and health centre that are at the heart of the development. It is setting standards from which important lessons can be learnt and establishing best practice that will influence wider development on the peninsula and elsewhere. The development enabled by the completion of the transaction being announced today will deliver a community several times the size of the Millenniurn Village, while incorporating the type and variety of public facilities and infrastructure that are required of a 21st-century sustainable community. The number of new homes will also make a substantial contribution to delivering the step change announced in the Sustainable Communities Plan, particularly for the Thames Gateway growth area.

Anschutz will transform the inner part of the Dome into a world-class, 26,000-capacity entertainment and sports arena. Anschutz is committed to investing at least £120 million in the arena, with EP receiving, after a priority return to Anschutz, 15 per cent of the profits. We cannot reveal the details of the priority return, as it impacts on Anschutz's ongoing business and is commercially confidential.

The arena is only part of the story. In the outer rim of the Dome, Anschutz will construct a mixture of retail, entertainment and leisure facilities. That part of the development is currently known as the Dome waterfront. EP will receive at least a one-third share of the profits, after the developer's priority return. At least a further £65 million will be invested in the area by the private sector. EP will also receive payment for the hotel site next to the Dome.

On the rest of the land, EP and MDL have agreed that they will develop the site jointly over the next 20 or so years, with an end date of 2025. The detailed terms provide for EP to retain ownership of its land until individual plots are required for development. The payout will work as follows: first, EP will receive an agreed, indexed minimum land value on the sale of any parcel of land, which will protect against any downturn in the market; secondly, a share of MDL's profits after deduction of development costs to reflect the enhanced planning consent and the market value at the time of sale to the developer. The share to be received by EP increases over time throughout the development phases from 40 per cent to 75 per cent. Where MDL develops land itself, English Partnerships will receive the agreed, indexed minimum land value plus a share of sale proceeds or the value of the development—both after costs—once the development is complete. That share ranges from 15 per cent to 20 per cent, depending on timing.

Over the period of the deal, EP expects to receive a financial return of the order of £550 million in cash terms. That is based on a validated assessment of expectation from the sale of the land and includes neither any additional return that may flow from the profit shares in respect of the Dome nor any redevelopment proceeds in the event that the Dome is demolished after 2018. Up to that date, Anschutz and MDL are contractually required to maintain the Dome. Should the Dome structure ever be removed and the land redeveloped, EP will be entitled to a 50 per cent share of redevelopment proceeds. This protects English Partnerships' position on the redevelopment value of the land.

With the completion of the contracts, English Partnerships' costs incurred in respect of the sale process and decommissioning of the Dome site have now ceased. The total costs incurred by English Partnerships in those areas that have now concluded are as follows:

In addition, EP has already incurred costs of £8.2 million on the management, maintenance, security and insurance of the Dome site up to 31 May, offset by income from events and lettings of £1.4 million. Those figures have been regularly reported to Parliament. As reported to Parliament, EP will continue to meet the Dome's necessary management, maintenance, security and insurance costs until Anschutz completes the construction of the arena. However, those costs will gradually reduce as preliminary works start before the main contract commences. EP estimates that its average monthly cost will fall from the recent £190,000 to around £60,000 when the main arena contract starts in spring 2005.

All of EP's costs from when it took ownership of the Dome in July 2001 to the completion of the arena's construction, including the costs of the entire sale process, will be recovered from sale proceeds. Based on the above figures to date and an estimate of the likely future management, maintenance, security and insurance costs, the total cost that EP expects to incur in relation to the Dome project, over six years and after taking account of offsetting income from events and lettings, is around £33 million.

The Government, in recognition of the leading role played by the lottery through the Millennium Commission in helping to regenerate the Greenwich peninsula, have consistently stated that it will receive a fair share of proceeds from the sale and development of the Dome. The division of proceeds with the lottery has now been agreed. EP will retain all of the first £30 million of development receipts, to cover most of the Dome-related costs described above, as a first call on proceeds. Thereafter, EP will retain 87 per cent of receipts, and the remaining 13 per cent will be passed to the lottery in recognition of the contribution of the Dome. That share will be reflected in a new legal agreement between EP and the New Millennium Experience Company, which will bind the parties to the respective shares of proceeds over the period covered by EP's contracts with MDL and Anschutz.

Under the terms of the original acquisition of the land, EP paid British Gas £20 million for the original transfer of the land, plus £4.3 million as a share of EP's sale receipts to date on the southern part of the Greenwich peninsula, as required in the original purchase transaction, which entitled British Gas to 7.5 per cent of all open market value land sales. British Gas has also received a further £10 million in respect of the enhanced value of Greenwich peninsula due to MDL's proposals and the retention of the Dome. That represents good value for money and reduces EP's liability under the original purchase agreement.

In agreeing the deal, the Government focused on four main aspects: value for money; regeneration benefits for the area; deliverability; and an innovative use for the Dome. With regard to value for money, we made it clear throughout that we would proceed with the deal only if it provided value for money for the Government. That included comparison with the value for money that could be delivered by demolishing the Dome or in alternative development scenarios retaining the Dome. The currently estimated value of the development to EP—assuming that the full scheme is developed—of around £550 million will depend on market fluctuations over 20 years for the eventual out-turn, but we are confident that the structure of the deal will deliver excellent financial returns for the taxpayer as well as enormous public benefits.

The deal enables the Government to benefit from the increasing value of the land on the peninsula both now and over time. That is sensible and in the public interest. As the development proceeds, land values will increase. That will be reflected in the land value element in the payment to EP when the land is sold for development. In turn, it will enable EP to reinvest more money in creating sustainable communities; in new housing, including for key workers; in environmental improvements; and in supporting the delivery of regeneration and best practice throughout England.

The regeneration benefits are described briefly above. There is much more, which will become apparent only once the development has begun, environmental improvements are being made, jobs are being filled and homes are being built. It is a programme of fitting scale and quality for a site that was the centrepiece of the millennium celebrations and is now a flagship project for London and the Thames Gateway.

As regards deliverability and sustainability, the participants in the development include players with established records in delivering developments of the size and quality this project requires. That is their core business. Anschutz Entertainment Group is part of the Anschutz Corporation, one of the largest private corporations in the United States of America. It has worldwide sporting and entertainment interests, including the Staples Centre arena in Los Angeles and the new arena it is building in Berlin. Lend Lease is a major development company, quoted on the Australian stock exchange and operating in 40 countries. It owns Bovis in the UK and has successfully developed the Sydney Olympic village and Bluewater shopping centre. Quintain is a significant player and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange. It is also involved in Wembley and several other large mixed-use developments and regeneration schemes. These players have the resources, the experience and the ability to deliver.

The arena and associated entertainment and leisure facilities will be a highly appropriate use for what is widely acknowledged to be a world-class landmark building. Public access is assured. Keeping the Dome as the linchpin of the development has been welcomed by the London Borough of Greenwich and the Mayor. The Government believe that the regeneration programme now secured for the Greenwich peninsula amply satisfies all four of the criteria that were set out for it. We look forward to work starting on site in the near future, leading to the delivery of the continued regeneration of a key site in the evolution of Greenwich, London and the Thames Gateway.

In summary, the picture is as follows. In the four all-postal pilot regions, overall turnout in the European parliamentary election has more than doubled, compared to that in 1999, going up from about 20 per cent to 42 per cent. In the other regions, turnout is also up, but by around half on the 1999 figures. Nearly three million more people voted in the four pilot regions in these European elections than in 1999. In places with all-postal local elections last week, turnout was substantially higher than elsewhere, with cities such as Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool showing increases in turnout of around half as much again since the last local elections. We believe therefore that the all-postal pilots have shown, on a significantly larger scale than ever before, that a system in which a postal vote is automatically given to every elector positively encourages participation.

The Electoral Commission will evaluate the pilots, and its report is due to be published in mid-September. The commission will examine the extent to which the manner in which the elections were conducted affected the incidence of electoral offences or malpractice. During the elections, a number of allegations of malpractice were made. Allegations of malpractice and fraud will be investigated, but, with a small number of exceptions, such allegations are not reflected in either the experiences of the electoral administrators or reports to the Crown Prosecution Service. Regional returning officers are not reporting a higher volume of problems than in previous elections. For example, the regional returning officer for the north-west, Sir Howard Bernstein, and the Greater Manchester Police issued a joint statement saying:

"While the nature of allegations has changed this year, the scale has not increased—if anything, it has lessened".

There were also some concerns expressed about the witness signature requirement on the declaration of identity form. The Government and the Electoral Commission had reservations about that requirement, and it was almost certainly a factor in limiting turnout. In pilots in local elections in 2003, there was a significantly higher turnout where no witness statement was used. We believe that there are better alternative security arrangements which avoid complexity and avoid the need for electors to disclose their intention to cast a ballot.

There were, in addition, a number of technical difficulties during the pilots. Returning officers, the Royal Mail and other suppliers worked very effectively together to overcome those difficulties where they occurred. Of the 14.1 million ballot packs, over 99 per cent were issued by returning officers by the deadline of midnight on 1 June. The few remaining packs were issued by 5.10 the following morning. Royal Mail provided an outstanding service in supporting the administrators and suppliers and ensuring that their role in the process was delivered effectively.

Our judgement is therefore that the pilots confirm conclusions from previous pilots in 2002 and 2003. These have already been evaluated by the Electoral Commission, which concluded that, with some further development, there should in future be a statutory presumption in favour of all-postal voting in local elections. The Government are therefore also confirming their intention for the proposed autumn regional referendums in the three northern regions to be on an all-postal basis.

The success of the all-postal pilots will provide a strong base from which we can develop a multichannel approach to elections in the future, giving further choice and opportunity to electors to have their say. Lessons from the pilots will be incorporated into the Government's wider plans for electoral modernisation, which include traditional methods of voting and alternatives such as postal balloting and electronic voting.

Although testing all-postal voting on this scale was bound to present challenges, the challenges were met, and the Government believe that this is a positive result for engagement and participation in the democratic process.

"many of the fears that have been raised about possible connections between the draft Bill and euthanasia appear to be misplaced".

The Bill has nothing at all to do with euthanasia. Its aim is to empower and increase protection for thousands of vulnerable adults. For the avoidance of any doubt, the Bill now expressly states that nothing in it affects the law on murder, manslaughter or assisted suicide.