Overall budget for Olympic venues set at £1.17bn

The 2012 Olympics Aquatics Centre, Velodrome, Handball Arena and temporary venues are to be built for a combined budget of £574m, it has emerged.

In a ministerial statement this morning, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell set out the most detailed breakdown yet released of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s budget for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Games will still be delivered for a total of £9.3bn, but more information has been released as to where the money will be spent.

The overall budget for the Olympic venues will be £1.17bn. Alongside the previously-released budget of £496m for the main stadium, £574m has been set aside for “other Olympic park venues”, which will include the Aquatics Centre, VeloPark, Handball Arena. It will also cover the costs to build the temporary Basketball Arena and the Fencing Hall, although the latter is under review. The “non-Olympic park venues” have been set a budget of £101m.

The budgets for these venues have not been further broken down as Jowell says they are subject to contract and therefore commercially sensitive.

The combined ODA budget for the Media Centre and Olympic Village has been set at £492m, though the latter will receive significant investment from development partner Lend Lease.

The largest amount set aside for construction is for structures, bridges and highways for the Olympic site, which have an anticipated cost of £830m. Utilities and enabling works together are expected to cost £619m.

The logistics budget for site construction is £337m, while security during the building of the Park is budgeted at £354m.

Half a billion pounds of contingency funds have already been released to the ODA to “manage early cost pressures”, including £100m for venues, £177m for site preparation and infrastructure and £208m for security, insurance, masterplanning and logistics.

Jowell said: “After a thorough assessment of all the potential risks associated with a development of this scale, the budget is consistent with the funding package I outlined in March this year.

"Months of careful scrutiny have confirmed that the Olympic Delivery Authority has the money it needs to deliver the venues and infrastructure for a terrific summer of sport.”

The ODA is to issue a detailed summary of its aligned budget, programme and risks in the New Year.