A leading parliamentary committee this week released a report into the £757m project to redevelop Wembley national football stadium.
The all-party public accounts committee uses the report to launch a root-and-branch attack on the government and Sport England for mishandling the development.

The committee notes that the cost of the stadium has more than doubled from the original budget of £320m and that it will not be completed until 2006 – two years behind the original schedule.

Sport England is criticised for giving the Football Association £120m of National Lottery money without any assurances that the project would go ahead.

The report says: "Had the project collapsed, it is doubtful that the lottery money would have been recovered."

The committee finds that £20m of public money could be wasted on the athletics track surrounding the main field, as it may never be used for competition.

The cost of premium seats – estimated at about £600 – was also criticised. The committee said ordinary fans had in effect been priced out of the market.

The report pointed out that the cost of a seat at Wembley is £8410, compared with £2200 at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.