London 2012 set to come in £377 million under budget
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is set to come in under budget. Figures from the Government’s final quarterly economic report show that the overall cost of the Games is forecast at £8.921 billion, a saving of £377m on the £9.298 billion budget.
In addition, £103 million of contingency is being held to cover the remaining risks in the programme, such as the retrofit of the Olympic Village for legacy use and closing out around 2,000 ODA and LOCOG contracts. In total, £480m of uncommitted contingency still remains within the budget.
The anticipated final cost (AFC) of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) construction and transport programme is £6.714 billion – a decrease of £47 million on the previous figure. Savings made by the ODA on its programme have now reached £1.032 billion.
Dennis Hone, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, said: “We are delighted that the venues and infrastructure that we were responsible for delivering proved to be such a big hit and provided an incredible stage and backdrop for the world’s greatest sporting event, for millions of spectators, and for Olympic and Paralympic athletes whose performances will never be forgotten. We are pleased to report even more savings made through careful stewardship of public money. We are now entering the final phase of the ODA’s work, transforming the Olympic Village into thousands of new homes and building a community that will become established, grow and mature in the decades ahead – a London 2012 legacy for generations to come.”
The forecast final costs of the Policing and Venue Security programmes have reduced by £20m and £39m respectively due to the return of unspent contingency and other savings. The Venue Security reduction does not assume any savings resulting from the enforcement of LOCOG’s contract with G4S.
The remaining balance of contingency within the Olympic budget now stands at £377 million, with an additional £73 million available to the ODA to cover assessed risks associated with its post-Games work, principally the Village retrofit.
