Olympic Stadium and part of the Games park

London 2012 Olympics: Final costs are £377m under budget, says report

Pat Coughtrey, News Editor Tuesday, October 23, 2012
12:42 PM

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is set to come in under budget, figures from a Government economic report show.

The overall cost of the Games is forecast at £8.921 billion, a saving of £377m on the £9.298 billion budget.

In addition, £103 million of contingency is being held to cover the remaining risks in the programme, such as the retrofit of the Olympic Village for legacy use and closing of around 2,000 building and services contracts, leaving £480m of uncommitted contingency left.

Anticipated final cost of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) construction and transport programme is £6.714 billion – a decrease of £47 million on the previous figure. Savings made by the ODA on its programme have now reached £1.032 billion.

Minister for Sport, Hugh Robertson said: “London 2012 was a tremendous success and it is a significant achievement to deliver this large and complex programme on time and under budget...I have no doubt that London 2012 has set a new benchmark for the management of Olympic and Paralympic Games in future.”

Dennis Hone, Chief Executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, said: “We are delighted that the venues and infrastructure that we were responsible for delivering proved to be such a big hit and provided an incredible stage and backdrop for the world’s greatest sporting event, for millions of spectators, and for Olympic and Paralympic athletes whose performances will never be forgotten. We are pleased to report even more savings made through careful stewardship of public money.” Additional funding was released to LOCOG from the funding package, including £26 million for capital works with legacy benefits, £16m for Government’s share of the cost of the Paralympic Games, and £14 million for Olympic Park venues and infrastructure. These costs are all contained within the overall forecast cost of the programme.

The forecast final costs of the Policing and Venue Security programmes have reduced by £20m and £39m respectively due to the return of unspent contingency and other savings. The Venue Security reduction does not assume any savings resulting from the enforcement of LOCOG’s contract with G4S.