News – Olympic pressure on Lottery funds

Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, has given the first indications that the spiralling costs of the London 2012 Olympics will reduce Lottery funding to the arts. Addressing the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, she acknowledged that the budget for the Olympic Park, where the games will be held, has risen to £3.3bn, an increase of 40% on previous forecasts.
Under the terms of an official Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor of London, any increase in spending on the games will be paid for from Lottery funds and London council tax increases, although there is no agreement on how this will be shared. Political pressure from the Mayor and London Labour MPs is likely to severely limit any increase on the £625m which is already planned to come from London taxpayers. Jowell also admitted that the recently established Olympic Lottery game was not raising revenue at the anticipated rate and that any shortfall would be shared equally across all the distributors& by about £12m. Jowell declared, I think it is important to see it not just in terms of the money that is going out of the door in order to fund the Olympics but the benefit that is coming back to those good causes because we are hosting the Olympics.