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Jowell: we wouldn't have bid if we'd known about slump
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor13.11.08
THE London Olympics would not be happening if the Government had known a recession was on its way when it bid for the Games, Tessa Jowell has declared.
In a clear hint that Gordon Brown may have blocked the project, the Olympics minister told leisure industry bosses that ministers would have been deterred by the huge cost of funding the 2012 event in a downturn. Ms Jowell, right, said at a dinner: "Had we known what we know now, would we have bid for the Olympics? Almost certainly not."
The budget for the Games has ballooned from £2.4 billion when Britain won the bid to more than £9 billion today. Miss Jowell insisted the Government was bearing down on costs. "We have taken £1.5 billion of costs out of the project since we started," she said. The minister tried to play down her comments last night, declaring that they "should be seen in the context in which they were made". "I have often observed that we bid for 2012 in one economic climate and are now in another." Ms Jowell then hinted that the Treasury was sceptical about the costs of the Olympic bid back in 2005. "Had the scale of the downturn been anticipated, I am sure there would have been a view from some that this would not be the time to commit significant public expenditure to a project like the Olympics," she said.
"But as I made clear in my speech, the reality is very different. This is precisely the time for this investment to be made. It has the potential to be economic gold at a time of economic need. It will regenerate one of the most deprived parts of east London and is already creating billions of pounds worth of work for British companies and jobs for thousands."
Reader views (20)
Just think HAD I KNOWN the euromillions numbers earlier to-day I would have won tonight and on this basis EVERY draw since it first started!!
The fact is Ken knew the Olympics was a way of getting back some of the billions of pounds that London has had taken away from it since the tories stopped local authorities keeping the money raised by business rates.
Anyone who has been to Stratford will know the massive regeneration of this run down area that is now taking place. The big question is whether Boris will ruin this by his penny pinching attitude to what is INVESTMENT snd not just spending?
Tessa and Boris sound as if they were made for each other! A couple of twits with mouths that engage before brains.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Says it all really, a non-thinking Government with their heads presumably hidden in some dark place.
They could always call upon the typical communist-influenced Labour contingency fund and raise taxes. Oh but they are doing that anyway.
- Joe, London, UK
Oh come on, we've just handed over 500 billion pounds to the banks no questions asked. What's a piddling little 9 billion. At least we'll have something to show for it afterwards.
- Albert Swift, Aberdeen, Scotland
Letting another country do it would be sensible, but when was our government ever sensible? Remember the stubborn insistence on pouring millions of £s into the Dome? No way will they admit defeat and pull out of this. Very unfortunately for the rest of us.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
We are where we are. I recommend that Tessa keep looking forward and ensure the most beneficial Olympic Legacy possible is delivered. Is it just me or is the Government being cynical in allowing the ODA to pull a flanker by restricting its remit to hard venue delivery and leaving the delivery of legacy to the poor ol' LDA whose recent leadership appears from all we've read to have been politically too weak and organisationally and managerially inept?
- Mike, london
Most Londoners said from the beginning they were not welcome. It is not feasible in a city of chronic Nu Labor under-investment. This was always a subsidy game for a very small part of the country east of London. And now it goes boom...
- Georgie, Islington, London
I am a stupid white man - I would cancel it now.
- Frederick, London, UK
"Didn't see it comming" What idiots, I sold my property portfolio two years ago. I don't understand why the govenment cant accept bubbles happen.
- Ben, London, W1
Shouldn't have bid full stop.Total waste of money.I hope it cripples us.
- Eddie, London
Oh what a wonderful country we live face facts Labour has broken the back of this country we cant afford 10bn.
- Gc, London
Tessa is wrong. In fact the slump is a godsend to keep the building and construction industry going; we need more public works, to keep people in jobs up until 2012.
- Dhanraj, Basildon Essex
Let's put on an austerity Olympics, reprising the 1948 games and getting back in touch with the original Olympic spirit. Let the athletes sleep in large portakabin-hangers. Eliminate all games with costly apparatus. Pipe in the theme tune from Chariots of Fire on a constant loop at all venues at all times. Britain will lead the way in the new world moral order.
- Bloke, London
At least all the events will be well attended, the unemployed will have plenty of time to go along and see them. Those of us still in work will, I dare say, be more preoccupied with doing it.
- Peter Haldane, London
This surely gives us an opportunity to get a better deal on contracts - put them out for proper competitive tendering (with Government funding rather than private funding to ensure that we don't end up paying the extortionate loan rates that a constructor would have to face) - any good construction firm will see the benefit of taking on a large, guaranteed project at a reduced profit during a recession.
- Andy, London
Ok, so now we know that we are in a slump, we should change tack with the whole project. Look at alternatives: are Paris still willing to take it on? Can we cut the cost from £9.3bn (Answer: Yes)? Can we re-use existing facilities throughout the UK and make it a UK Olympics, rather than a London Olympics (Answer: Yes).
It is time to be honest; we don't have £10bn to spend on the luxury of watching people running about and throwing things. We can't even afford to heat our homes or fill our cars with fuel. Sack all the consultants and hangers-on. Implement a scaled-down plan. Most people will appreciate that.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
What a woman...........had we have known what we know now..........
If that applies to not knowing that we were living in a bubble that was about to burst then that says a lot for Gordon Brown and forward thinking.
If they got that wrong and didn't know it was on it's way even though at that time the government was borrowing heavily it means that Gordon really believed his own hype of NO MORE BOOM and BUST what else is simmering under the lid ready to explode.
- Pat, sussex
This is exactly what people living outside of London thought in the first place. Whoever made the cost predictions that have proved so very wrong, should be sacked. Is it too late to withdraw our offer now?
- Norcot, Oakham Rutland
This whole Olympics thing is going to a tragic disaster of epic proportions. Like a train crash in slo-mo.
- Squiz, Islington
Well, how about sticking a budget for starters! But then again, we know this government can't get anything right.
I mean, the original estimate didn't even include VAT, then jumped to three times the original cost.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing the event, but think the cost is just stupid, but could & should have been better thought out.
- Scott B., London
is it too late to give it to the French?
- Fly, london
