§ Lord Jopling asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ What is the average total extra charge to be made to London households in the event of London being the host to the 2012 Olympic Games; and over how many years it will be spread. [HL3607]
§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey:In the event of a successful bid, up to £625 million will come from council tax from Londoners. Council tax is a matter for the Mayor, and it is his expectation that, with the current number of households, this will cost each household on average £199 and will be spread over up to 12 years. The average cost and the time period may reduce depending on the final amount required and any changes to the local tax base.
Lord Moynihan asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport had any evidence to support her statement that London scored badly on the International Olympic Committee's criteria for government support "because of the uncertainty created by the forthcoming mayoral elections" (HC Deb, 28th June, col. 15). [HL3654]
§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey:London did not score badly for government support. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded London a range of 8–9 out of 10 for the technical criterion "Government Support", the same as all other applicant cities. In addition to this assessment of the level of support, the overall score for the category included a multiplier for feasibility. London and New York had a lower multiplier for feasibility than Paris and Madrid, of 0.8 compared to 0.9. In the terms of the IOC evaluation report 0.8 is rated as "high probability".
The report of the IOC does not offer any explicit explanation why London and New York were given slightly lower feasibility ratings. However, as part of the information used to score this category, candidate cities were asked to provide information about the frequency of elections before 2005. London was alone in possibly facing two sets of elections that could affect government support for the bid—both mayoral and a potential general election. New York has presidential, congressional and state legislative elections in the bidding period. Paris will have no elections that would significantly affect government or city support, and Madrid had a general election (in March) and will not hold a city or regional ballot before July 2005.
As part of their response to the Working Group Report the bid company is in discussions with the IOC to establish the underlying reasons for both this marking and the other areas of the file where London scored lower than other cities.