HC Deb 09 September 2003 vol 410 cc334-5W
Mr. Moss

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions her Department has had to ensure that sufficient hotel accommodation will be available for visitors to the capital, should the Olympic Games be held in London in 2012. [128653]

Tessa Jowell

The assessment of the cost and benefit implications of bidding for and staging the Olympics and Paralympic Games in London in 2012 undertaken by Arup in May 2003 estimated the average daily room requirement during an Olympic Games as between 80,000 and 145,000. Drawing on London Tourist Board figures, Arup also projected up to 200,000 rooms in hotels/guest houses as potentially available within International Olympic Committee (IOC) visitor travel time requirements of one hour.

Detailed information on accommodation is required by the IOC for the applicant city questionnaire, and London 2012 Ltd., the company set up to prepare the Olympic bid, will be undertaking further work to verify and refine these figures over the coming months.

Mr. Whittingdale

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her estimate is of the total cost of a London Olympic Games; and how it is proposed that it will be financed, broken down by source in each year. [128086]

Tessa Jowell

The consultants Arup estimated the costs of a London Olympics at £3.6 billion with expected revenues of £2.5 billion. This implied a net public subsidy of £1.1 billion. The Government and the Mayor have agreed a funding package of up to £2.375 billion, allowing a generous contingency, including up to £1.5 billion from the lottery and up to £625 million from a London Olympics Council Tax. As is explained in the Memorandum of Understanding, which was included in the Government response to the Select Committee Report, "A London Olympic Bid for 2012" (HC 268), ref. Cm 5867The flow of funds will depend on the organisations that are nominated to deliver various aspects of the Games. These details have not yet been fully worked up. Because rises or falls in one sector of Olympic cost may be offset in another sector it is not possible to completely earmark particular strands of funding to discrete objects. Within that, the broad intention is that Lottery funding should be primarily directed to sports investment, Olympic facilities and event staging and that money raised from the Olympic precept should address capital requirements of the Games including transport infrastructure.

Mr. Whittingdale

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her estimate is of the total change in money available to existing good causes as a result of the establishment of special Olympic lottery games. [128087]

Tessa Jowell

Preliminary estimates provided by Camelot, and assessed by the National Lottery Commission, suggest that any reduction of income to the existing good causes from Olympic lottery games would be small—approximately 4 per cent. for the remainder of the Camelot licence period (until 2009). Each game will be subject to approval by the NLC, and in designing the games, Camelot will seek to minimise the effect on the core lottery games.