Olympics minister Tessa Jowell yesterday admitted for the first time that she could not be certain efforts to raise private money to build the athletes village and broadcast centre for the 2012 games in London would be successful.
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell yesterday admitted for the first time that she could not be certain efforts to raise private money to build the athletes village and broadcast centre for the 2012 games in London would be successful.
London Olympics has already admitted problems with its commitments due to the fallout from turmoil in the world's financial markets. It has said some of the UK Government's £968m contingency money will be needed while insisting this will not constitute a breach of the £9.3bn budget.
Lend Lease, the Australian company contracted to build the 3300-home 2012 Olympic village which is costed at £1bn, is believed to have barely half of that amount in place.
Surveyors estimate the cost of the international media centre for the games could rise to £400m - almost three times the original estimate.
Ms Jowell yesterday said "intense" talks were still under way to find private partners for the Olympic village for athletes and broadcast centre.
She insisted the projects were still on budget and using contingency money was not "any kind of failure", while adding that the aim was still to try to find private sector backers.
Ms Jowell said: "We haven't given up. There is, at the moment, no private sector contribution on the table and that is a change since the contract was first signed. This is not a good time to pursue private sector investment but remember, there is a three-and-a-half year build and development programme."
Ms Jowell, appearing before the Culture, Sport and Media Committee, said the UK Government had already advanced contingency funding to enable work on the village to continue and negotiations with Lend Lease were continuing.
Ms Jowell's concerns were expressed on the same day the International Olympic Committee executive, meeting for the first time since last summer's Beijing Games, said it will review the "state of play" for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, the 2012 London Games, and 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in light of the world economic crisis.
Meanwhile, it was announced yesterday that David Ross, co-founder of mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, has resigned from the London 2012 organising committee, following his breach of share disclosure rules.
