After 2012

For the 17,000 athletes preparing for the 2012 Olympics and for the billions of fans anticipating the games, the event is the biggest date in the international sporting calendar. But for Jason Prior, regional vice principal of Olympic infrastructure masterplanner EDAW, the Games represent "a means to an end".

"Our focus is driven by legacy," says Prior.

"I see this [masterplan] as two projects. One is the great Olympic Games and the other is how we use the Games to get the city to another place - and that's more important than the Games' short-term use."

London won the bid to host the Games in June last year, highlighting how the Games would boost housing, jobs and sports facilities in the deprived Lower Lea Valley. The area is characterised by derelict industrial land and poor housing, with unemployment levels as high as 35% on some estates.

The £3.4bn Olympic regeneration programme will be one of the UK's largest, transforming

200 ha of degraded land in Stratford into an 80,000-seat stadium, a cluster of sporting venues and accommodation for 17,000 people.

The major legacy issues sparked by the Games include drastic transformations to the built environment and thousands of new opportunities in jobs and training. Both Newham council and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA, see "Who's Who", below)

also expect the community to be galvanised in the process. So what are the plans post-Games and what work is already under way? And what challenges lie ahead in delivering the Olympic legacy?

The park’s centrepiece will be an 80,000-seat stadium that will be converted into a 25,000-seat stadium with training, sports science and medical facilities

The built environment

The promise from the ODA is both admirable and ambitious: "There will be no white elephants after the London Games". After 2012, East London will be left with a 500-acre park containing state-of-the-art sports venues, shops, restaurants, offices and up to 11,000 new homes.

The Olympic park in Stratford will contain the major venues. These will be reconfigured for community as well as for professional use and the ODA wants them to form a home for Olympic ideals as the London Olympic Institute.

The park's centrepiece will be an 80,000-seat stadium that will be converted into a 25,000-seat stadium with training, sports science and medical facilities. The ODA intends it to be run by a not-for profit company and make money from hosting events and renting out office space.

There will be a 20,000-seat aquatics centre in the south-east of the complex with two 50 m swimming pools and a 25m diving pool. After 2012, the seating will be reduced to 3500. A hockey venue at the park's centre will include a 15,000-seat main arena, a 5000-seat second arena and warm-up pitch. In legacy, it will become a 5000-seat arena.

The velopark, in the north of the park, will include the velodrome and a BMX track with seating for 6000 spectators each, and four multisport arenas. After the Games, it will be reduced to a 3000-seat velodrome, a BMX circuit and cycling routes.

Prior says the practice is currently "fine-tuning" plans. "We're doing a lot of work on which venues will be temporary and where they'll be relocated."

The park will also include the Olympic village with housing for athletes and officials around communal squares with shops, restaurants and medical facilities. After the Games, the village alone will provide 3600 homes, "many of which would be affordable", says the ODA, and the area will have three new schools.

The plans are to integrate the village with the neighbouring Stratford City development so some accommodation can be delivered through the latter site. Prior says up to 11,000 homes could be available in legacy: "The target is 50% affordable and we're looking for a big injection of family housing in the area."

After the Games, the Olympic village alone will provide 3600 homes, ‘many of which would be affordable’, says the ODA

Three of East London's biggest social landlords - East Thames, the L&Q Group and Southern Housing Group - are already in partnership to exploit the government's plans for the Thames Gateway. "The Olympic decision is yet another opportunity for us to pursue; we're working with each other around the legacy opportunities," says June Barnes, chief executive of East Thames.

Current progress on the ground includes the first of the powerlines overshadowing the Olympic park site being placed underground in April. In April the ODA also acquired the freehold of Stratford City land and in May it announced the shortlist for the delivery partner contract to manage the construction of the Olympic park, which has had outline planning permission since 2004.

An inquiry is also under way into the compulsory purchase order that the London Development Agency is using to free up land for the park. The inquiry will end in July with the government likely to approve the CPO by November and occupants expected to leave by July 2007. Detailed planning applications should be submitted by the end of January 2007 and the ODA plans to commission all designs this year and complete land assembly by mid 2007. The Olympic village should be built by the end of 2008 and work should start on the main sports venues by 2009.

Those involved are aware of the challenges ahead. "Increases in house prices and potential rents around the Olympic park could tighten the temporary housing market," warns Barnes. For now, however, she is not too concerned. "Part of the legacy is affordable housing, which should help reduce this issue after the event."

John Herman, head of physical regeneration and infrastructure at Newham council's 2012 unit, also warns that Olympic regeneration must be viewed in context: "There's Crossrail, the Royal Docks, Stratford City, a massive amount of construction. The Games add certainty and pizzazz but we must maintain focus on the other projects. It's about long-term success and regeneration - not just a focus on eight weeks in 2012."

Jobs and training

The ODA predicts 7000 full-time equivalent jobs at the peak of construction and 12,000 as a result of legacy development. "One of the four Olympic objectives is maximising the economic, social and environmental benefits to London and Londoners, " says Tom Travers, head of Olympic and Paralympic opportunity at the London Development Agency (LDA).

Construction training will be both on and off site, and there will be original construction as well as fit-out work as facilities are reconfigured post-Games. There will also be work for professionals ranging from IT specialists to linguists and tour guides.

Although contracts are unlikely to be put out to tender until 2007, work is under way to create an appropriately skilled workforce. In February the government and London Mayor launched the London 2012 Employment and Skills Taskforce to help Londoners get necessary training to compete for jobs. The taskforce will set out its responsibilities in a business plan this summer and will assess issues such as the labour required before, during and after 2012.

The LDA will also award £3.5m over the next three years to support construction training. "We hope training can start by the end of the year and will be exploring various providers soon," says Travers. The LDA is also consulting the industry about the skills needed. Proposals include more training in modern methods of construction and in roofing, bricklaying, tiling and wood trades.

The big challenge, adds Newham's John Herman, is ensuring training courses respond to demand. "It's no good just churning out certificates - training must be relevant to need."

Herman's team is drawing up a new employment strategy to help Newham residents access jobs. "The leaders of the five boroughs closest to the Games are working together on employment issues. There will be a cross-boundary effect on employment so it's sensible to work together on a sub-regional basis." One simple way of boosting local employment, says Herman, is to ensure the area's businesses are aware of what contracts are being let.

And with the Olympic village creating thousands of new homes post-Games, East Thames' Barnes is anticipating hundreds of jobs in housing management as "several thousand homes come forward onto the market in a relatively short period of time". Barnes hopes the association will help feed the skills gaps during development - for example, East Thames' construction training programme uses empty properties for training.

After 2012 the 20,000-seat aquatics centre with two 50 m swimming pools will be reduced to 3500 seats

The community

The ODA estimates that 70,000 volunteers will need to help deliver the Games, which will have a major impact on "soft" regeneration issues such as community involvement.

Newham launched a volunteering program during the bidding process and now has a pool of 500 volunteers who could do anything from becoming guides to helping set up facilities. The authority also held a consultation event at ExCeL in February, attended by 32,000 people, and says it is using feedback from the event - such as what residents hope to gain from the Olympics - to focus its work on the Games.

Newham is also using 2012 to improve social inclusion through sport. This summer, all under-16s will be eligible for the Summer of Sport programme, and can try Olympic sports for free. The council plans another scheme offering elite coaching, sports science and psychology to 50 talented young athletes across the Olympic disciplines.

But, like any regeneration project, the scheme also risks alienating locals: "The impact of construction will not always be positive," admits Richard Brown, ODA interim head of stakeholder relations. "We need to be open - we have to satisfy people's thirst for information." The CPO process, for example, is creating friction, with many objecting to being displaced.

Graham Matthews , partner at consultant EC Harris, adds: "It's vital to make sure people feel this something being done with them rather than to them. Groups should be actively consulted rather than simply being informed." Matthews believes community outreach work - rather than traditional consultation such as leaflet drops - is key.