Public to pay for Olympic media centre, says Armitt

The £300m Media Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games will be paid for entirely by public money, according to the Olympic Delivery Authority chairman.

In an interview with the Observer newspaper, John Armitt admitted that private sector interest in the 1.5m ft² development had been too little to spark outside investment.

He said: "There's much less interest at the moment from the private sector. It was always going to be public/private but it may now have to be 100% public."

However, Armitt said that the structure was now unlikely to be temporary as the predicted costs of such a building were higher than originally anticipated.

He said: "This is the one building within the Olympic complex which has the potential to provide jobs. We're still driving towards what we hope can be a Hackney-based solution with permanent buildings, but built with flexibility."

The building was originally to have been part-funded by regeneration firm Igloo, but they are now understood to have parted ways with the project after they could not raise the amount the ODA wanted. Carillion, which bid with Igloo to construct the media centre, will still be main contractor.

Armitt also confirmed that two housing associations had agreed to buy 30% of the units on the £1bn athletes village, as revealed by Building earlier this year.

Development partner Lend Lease has until March to find enough cash to pay its share of the deal. Banks and the government will bankroll the rest.