Olympics budget rises to £9.3bn

The accuracy of an earlier BBC revelation about the rising budget for the 2012 London Olympics was confirmed today.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told the House of Commons that the costs have risen to £9.35bn - nearly four times the original £2.4bn estimate.

Construction costs are now set the reach £5.3bn and there is a £2.7bn "contingency fund". Tax and security costs have also risen.

It was also confirmed that, as the Treasury is not able to cover these rises, both lottery funds and London taxpayers will foot a large part of the extra bill.

In raiding the lottery in particular for a further £675m to make up the shortfall, the government will not just penalise small sports clubs and organisations up and down the country that are supposed to benefit from the Olympics, but many other good charitable causes besides.

Overall, the government's contribution will now be £6bn, with £2.2bn coming from the National Lottery - including the extra £675m - and the rest from London's council tax payers.

London's contribution will be an extra £300 million, but as Mayor Ken Livingstone has said that the money will not be raised from higher council tax, it's not clear which public services or works are are going to be cut, or other taxes / charges raised, to pay this extra amount.

Whatever your view of the Olympics and their value, the key point here is that burdening London taxpayers and, worse, the National Lottery with these extra costs is not necessary.

The government could easily cover all these extra costs without depriving London's public services or good causes of money if it wasn't going to waste £36bn (net) between now and 2012 by handing it to the wasteful, audit-failing EU.