By Vivienne Russell | 1 May 2012
Warnings by MPs about the total costs of staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London this summer are a ‘bit misleading’, according to the Games’s finance director.
In an interview with Public Finance, David Goldstone, director of finance and build at the Government Olympic Executive, challenged the March report from the Public Accounts Committee that said the public costs of putting on the Games was edging towards £11bn, far in excess of the £9.3bn budget.
The PAC arrived at £11bn by adding in the costs of purchasing land for the Olympic Park and the cost across Whitehall of running legacy programmes.
Goldstone acknowledged that acquiring the land had cost the public purse £750m, but added: ‘It’s all planned to be recovered through the legacy. Receipts [from the sale of the venues] will be far greater than the costs.’
On the wider legacy programmes, Goldstone said these were costs to departments of trying to get the best future value from the Olympics and should not be included in the total cost of hosting the event.
He told PF: ‘Those [legacy programme] costs have always been there, but they were never in what we treated as the [£9.3bn] funding package, which was the extra costs of putting on the Games, the cost of the build, security and transport.
‘We started publishing the position after we set the budget at the end of 2007 and we said which costs weren’t included just to be clear. I think it was a bit misleading to add them in at this stage.’
Goldstone added that preparation for the Olympics was in ‘very good shape’. ‘We’ve got over £500m of the original contingency still uncommitted so we are confident on the financial side.’
Warnings by MPs about the total costs of staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London this summer are a ‘bit misleading’, according to the Games’s finance director.
In an interview with Public Finance, David Goldstone, director of finance and build at the Government Olympic Executive, challenged the March report from the Public Accounts Committee that said the public costs of putting on the Games was edging towards £11bn, far in excess of the £9.3bn budget.The PAC arrived at £11bn by adding in the costs of purchasing land for the Olympic Park and the cost across Whitehall of running legacy programmes.
Goldstone acknowledged that acquiring the land had cost the public purse £750m, but added: ‘It’s all planned to be recovered through the legacy. Receipts [from the sale of the venues] will be far greater than the costs.’
On the wider legacy programmes, Goldstone said these were costs to departments of trying to get the best future value from the Olympics and should not be included in the total cost of hosting the event.
He told PF: ‘Those [legacy programme] costs have always been there, but they were never in what we treated as the [£9.3bn] funding package, which was the extra costs of putting on the Games, the cost of the build, security and transport.
‘We started publishing the position after we set the budget at the end of 2007 and we said which costs weren’t included just to be clear. I think it was a bit misleading to add them in at this stage.’
Goldstone added that preparation for the Olympics was in ‘very good shape’. ‘We’ve got over £500m of the original contingency still uncommitted so we are confident on the financial side.’
