MPs warn Olympic bosses over costs

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The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee said some cost controls had been "risible" and warned that confidence in the Games management had been damaged by the soaring budget - which had rocketed from an original estimate of £3.4 billion to £9.325 billion.

It also expressed "doubts" over whether the organisers would be able to recoup the the full £1.8 billion they were banking on from the sale of land and property after the Games were over.

The committee said that the priority must now be to keep down costs and ensure the final bill came in "comfortably below" the £9.3 billion ceiling.

It acknowledged there was "much to commend" in what the organisers had achieved so far and said significant steps had been taken to put the Games on a sound financial footing.

However it said it still had "serious reservations" about the costs which were "far higher" than the original estimate.

The committee was particularly scathing about the project to build an Aquatics Centre, which was now set to come in a £303 million, more than four times the £73 million estimated at the time of London's bid in 2004.

It also said that with more than £3 billion built into the overall Games budget to cover contingency costs, any request by the organisers for additional funds would be "a major failure of cost control".

Committee chairman John Whittingdale said the National Lottery causes which had lost out as a result of funds being diverted to the Olympics should have first call on any unspent contingency money.

It questioned whether Britain would be able to achieve the eighth place in the medal table it was aiming for in the Beijing Olympics, followed by fourth in London in 2012.