Millennium Dome: Operating Costs

HL Deb 12 October 2000 vol 617 cc53-4WA

Baroness Byford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their response to the statement made on Newsnight on 12 September by Mr David James, the Chairman of the New Millennium Experience Company, in respect of the Millennium Dome that "the operating building costs did go over budget". [HL3847]

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

I understand that David James, the Executive Chairman of the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), was referring to the aggregate operating costs incurred by the NMEC from its inception to its projected orderly wind-up in 2001. This indicates that operating costs will have overrun by perhaps as much as £40 million against the original budget of May 1997.

However, the figure to which Mr James was referring includes not only the costs of operating the Dome as a visitor attraction, but also the costs included in the original May 1997 budget covering the National Programme and various other corporate expenditure items. The NMEC has calculated that, if the costs of operating the Dome as a visitor at traction for the 12 months since it opened on 1 January to its projected closing on 31 December are addressed exclusively, the present projection is that operating costs will show a saving of some £8 million above the figure included in that original budget.