Winning is everything

This time next July, 125 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote in Singapore on which city gets to host the 2012 Olympics. London has been ranked equal third, along with New York, behind Paris and Madrid. The race is on and the bid committee, led by Sebastian Coe, have a big job to convince not only the IOC members, but also the British public, that hosting the games is a good idea.

But should the industry rally behind the bid? Mike Power, chief operating officer for London 2012, says of course it should, because it will take the largest slice of the £2.375bn earmarked to stage the games. "More than IT, construction will be the great beneficiary if we win."

If London wins there will be around half a billion pounds of new-build work in the east end of London. The main components will be a £350m, 80,000-seat stadium, an Olympic standard aquatic centre worth roughly £71m, and a £26m velodrome.

simply small fry?
Half a billion pounds is fairly junior compared to other London projects, including Heathrow's Terminal 5 (£4bn), the Battersea Power Station (£1bn) and even Wembley Stadium (£757m). But organisers also point to the injection of human capital that would result from a London win. The London Development Agency estimates that 7000 construction jobs would be created, and it is assessing the possibility of a dedicated construction academy in east London to ensure an adequate flow of skilled trades people.

There is also a big social benefit as the deprived Lower Lea Valley becomes the focus of intense regeneration. Accommodation for the athletes will turn into 9000 permanent homes, a proportion of them affordable. The 1500-acre area will become one of the largest new urban parks seen in Europe for 200 years, built around a reinvigorated network of rivers and canals. And don't forget the nice new sports facilities.

Organisers say the whole economy typically benefits. They reckon the Sydney Olympics in 2000 drew 1.6 million extra tourists and generated more than £2.5bn for the economy between 1997 and 2001.

So who wouldn't want this? Well, according to a Mori poll last May, only 70% of Londoners thought the Olympics would bring long term benefits. Compare that to the results of a similar poll in China that found that 86% of people thought the Beijing Olympics in 2008 would bring long-term benefits. And Gerald Kaufman, MP and columnist for Building magazine, prays that London will fail in its bid because he believes the cost to the public is almost certain to escalate beyond predictions, even to double, if Sydney and Athens were anything to go by.

He also thinks that the facilities, especially the 80,000-seat stadium, will languish unused and unloved after 2012.

Construction will be the great beneficiary if we win the bid

Mike Power, LONDOn 2012

Whether Kaufman's predictions turn out to be correct or not, his is a minority official view. There is huge political will to win the bid. Tony Blair backs it. His two rival parties back it. Even the planners in the four affected London boroughs have created a joint planning team to speed up the planning process.

But that's not enough. The IOC will want to see popular support, and they poll inhabitants themselves. What can construction do to help? There are three things, says Power:

• Put the London 2012 branding on construction site hoardings. (But you'll have to buy them yourselves);
  
• Get your hands on an information pack so you can talk up London's bid at every opportunity;
  
• Give money. It won't buy you work, but Power says you'll be able to associate yourself with the bid. And that can only be a good thing.

A role for the CIOB?
What can the CIOB do? Nothing at the moment, but if London wins, a new organisation, in charge of implementation, will spring into being. This organisation will doubtless need a great deal of help with procurement and project management. Power says there will be plenty of opportunity for various secondments and volunteers, not to mention actual employment.

But realistically speaking, how likely is London to win? What about the IOC's reservations about London's transport? Power dismisses these objections. He says Crossrail, the ambitious East to West rail link, does not figure in the bid at all. He points out that Stratford, in the heart of the Olympic park, is "unbelievably well connected", with tube lines, National Rail, and the Docklands Light Railway all running through it. However, apart from major transport infrastructure already in the pipeline – the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which will bring Stratford to within seven minutes of central London in 2006, and the extension of the East London Line, which is due to forge further into south east London by 2010 – not much else is planned. But even then, he says, London will still beat Paris in its ability to get athletes to the stadia quickly, as the UK capital is one of the more compact sites under consideration.

Last month he admitted to industry figures at a breakfast briefing that, on transport, the committee hadn't made the case to the IOC particularly well. It will be using the next 12 months to persuade IOC members that its reputation for poor transport is undeserved.

That still leaves the London public, and on this, Power believes the construction industry should rally behind the bid and practice what he calls "viral marketing" which seems to mean promoting an infectious enthusiasm.