By David Williams
6 July 2010
The organisers of the 2012 London Olympics have been accused of making hollow promises over the Games’ capacity to regenerate the five boroughs it is based in, some of the most deprived in the UK.
Andrew Boff, the London Assembly’s Conservative group spokesman on the Games, said that despite a budget of £9.3bn, there will be little benefit to those living close to the site.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the games being awarded to the capital, following a bid to the International Olympic Committee centred on an ambitious legacy project.
But Boff accused Olympic organisers of ‘a massive exercise in smoke and mirrors’. He said that if the main goal was reviving disadvantaged communities, £9.3bn could have been spent more effectively.
‘The Olympics will be brilliant – I’m not knocking it,’ Boff told Public Finance. ‘The question here is whether it was the most effective way of regenerating east London. The legacy part hasn’t really been thought through.’
Boff argued that hosting the Olympic Games would not generate new external funding, but concentrate existing cash on to a single project. ‘Every pound that’s spent is a pound that won’t go to places like Middlesbrough and Liverpool.’
The comments came after the government postponed the transfer of the Olympic site to the Olympic Park Legacy Company, subject to a Treasury review. The body, established a year ago to ensure that the Games’ facilities and infrastructure provided the maximum benefits for east London, was due to take ownership of the site last month.
Executives at the company are understood to be fuming at the delay, which they believe is holding up the bidding process for assets such as the Olympic stadium and media centre.
The 2005 bid for the games promised that the boroughs of Greenwich, Newham, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets would experience upturns in sporting participation, employment and training opportunities, life expectancy and housing conditions.
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokeswoman said the Olympics would produce thousands of jobs, homes, schools, health centres and world-class sports facilities.
She emphasised the business investment that the Games have already attracted, and that a ‘contaminated industrial wastleland’ had been reclaimed for Londoners.
‘This project is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is only over time that the full benefits for east London will be felt,’ the spokeswoman added.
6 July 2010
The organisers of the 2012 London Olympics have been accused of making hollow promises over the Games’ capacity to regenerate the five boroughs it is based in, some of the most deprived in the UK.
Andrew Boff, the London Assembly’s Conservative group spokesman on the Games, said that despite a budget of £9.3bn, there will be little benefit to those living close to the site.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the games being awarded to the capital, following a bid to the International Olympic Committee centred on an ambitious legacy project.
But Boff accused Olympic organisers of ‘a massive exercise in smoke and mirrors’. He said that if the main goal was reviving disadvantaged communities, £9.3bn could have been spent more effectively.
‘The Olympics will be brilliant – I’m not knocking it,’ Boff told Public Finance. ‘The question here is whether it was the most effective way of regenerating east London. The legacy part hasn’t really been thought through.’
Boff argued that hosting the Olympic Games would not generate new external funding, but concentrate existing cash on to a single project. ‘Every pound that’s spent is a pound that won’t go to places like Middlesbrough and Liverpool.’
The comments came after the government postponed the transfer of the Olympic site to the Olympic Park Legacy Company, subject to a Treasury review. The body, established a year ago to ensure that the Games’ facilities and infrastructure provided the maximum benefits for east London, was due to take ownership of the site last month.
Executives at the company are understood to be fuming at the delay, which they believe is holding up the bidding process for assets such as the Olympic stadium and media centre.
The 2005 bid for the games promised that the boroughs of Greenwich, Newham, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets would experience upturns in sporting participation, employment and training opportunities, life expectancy and housing conditions.
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokeswoman said the Olympics would produce thousands of jobs, homes, schools, health centres and world-class sports facilities.
She emphasised the business investment that the Games have already attracted, and that a ‘contaminated industrial wastleland’ had been reclaimed for Londoners.
‘This project is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is only over time that the full benefits for east London will be felt,’ the spokeswoman added.
