2012 Features

The budget for the 2012 London Olympics will total 9.325 billion pounds, according to figures published by the government.

Central government will pay 4.93 billion pounds - in addition to 1 billion pounds already committed - to pay for the games and regeneration of the surrounding area.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told MPs the rest of the money will come from the national lottery and London taxpayers.

The original estimate for hosting the games and regenerating the area was put at £3.4bn - in November organisers said this figure would rise to £5bn.

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Breakdown of the figures

Olympic Park and venues: £3.1billion Regeneration and infrastructure: £1.7billion Contingency fund: £2.7billion VAT: £840million Security: £600million Funding for community sport and Paralympics: £390million TOTAL: £9.33billion Where the money comes from: Government: £6billion Mayor of London: £1.175billion Lottery: £2.175billion The Olympic Delivery Authority will be given a budget of £5.3 billion to cover construction costs up to 2012.

This comprised £3.1 billion for Olympic parks and venues, £1.7 billion for generation and infrastructure and a £500 million allowance for programme contingencies.

The ODA will pay £840 million in tax but that amount will be "covered in full by the Government contribution".

Tessa Jowell said the Government had set a "prudent" contingency of £2.7 billion which can be drawn on only under "very tight conditions" to ensure that "the timetable is met and quality maintained".
A figure of £600 million had been allocated for wider security.
Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "Londoners will not pay a penny more than the current 38p a week contribution on the council tax to the Olympic Games.

"Today's announcement delivers that promise. To get the Games for the price of a walnut whip a week is a bargain".

Email us your views on the budget for the 2012 Games to yourlondon@bbc.co.uk

Your Views

When the initial quote came out I forecast a cost of £10billion.    We still have 7 years to go so I expect it to go even higher. Say £15 billion.   Don’t hold me to that figure as we still have rising inflation, interest rates, wages etc that can affect the final result.
Henry Nayler

The estimated cost of the Olympics is nothing short of obscene. Taxpayers and council tax payers countrywide will end up paying for it. Since professional sports players have been allowed to participate, the entire concept of the Olympics has become a farce.  A goodly percentage of participants will receive enormous sums of money whilst I, an OAP, will  have more of my pension clawed back by the government to cover the outrageous costs. 
C Stone

It seems likely that the main beneficeries of the Games will be big business, not Londoners.  Even the jobs created are likely to be sucked up by the huge numbers of Eastern Europeans conveniently on hand to supply cheap labour.
Nicola Preston

We live within 200 yards of the Greater London Boundary, yet we have to pay the same as a family in Greenwich whilst our friends who live 250 yards away are paying nothing!!

If Lord Coe wants his dam Games in this country, then everyone should pay, after all keen sportsmen and women are going to travel to the games from all over the UK and indeed the world. We will not, and whilst we are happy to the regeneration of the east end, we are so far away, it will make not a jot of difference to our lives. We resent not being given the chance to vote for or against, rather than have God Livingstone telling us we want the games, and will have to pay for them. Well Ken, and Lord Coe, take your ball away and go play in someone else’s yard!!
Angry of Cheam!!

It is a marvellous achievement to be awarded the 2012 Olympics BUT they are a National event and the whole country should be financing the Games not just Londoners. I forecast considerable resentment, not just to the Games but to the Government and the Mayor of London for landing London in what will obviously be years of debt and depravity.
Stuart Taylor

I think that enormous sums of money would be better spent on the Olympics than on Trident; bringing the people of the world together rather than splitting them apart.  
Pat Thomas

I think it very interesting that the government is willing to spend £20bn on Trident replacement to "maintain the peace" - a total waste of money in my opinion - but not less than half that on the London Olympics - a real promoter of peace!  Especially as the Olympics gives lasting value in stadia and the like, wheras the Trident replacement can never be used (Fod forbid!) and eventually scrapped.
Roger Mitcham

Who gains from this vast Olympic investment? The contractors, certainly. The IOC with much junketing. The participants with lavish prize money and contracts. I will have a lot of money forcibly taken from me. I am not the slightest bit interested in sport. I will not watch it on TV. I will not involve myself in any way with the inevitable hype. The Mayor will host many parties to which the majority of London Council tax payers will not be invited. Peter Bloomfield

As pensioners my wife and I resent the fact that we are having to pay for the Olympics as part of our very high council tax just because we live in a London borough, If there is any good feedback from the games the whole of Great Britain will benefit so why should'nt they all pay. We were hoping that the French would get the games. Eric Tucker

If people like the Olympic Games thats fine.  However its not fine, when the NHS is being castigated for a £1/2 billion overspend, mainly on bureaucratic systems introduced by the government; hospitals are threatened with closure, wards are closed, and waiting lists are unbearable.  £2 billion is a relatively small amount compared to the vast sums, well over the original £9 billion "estimate" being thrown at the Olympics which will not have long term benefits - proof is in other cities that have held the games where money was wasted while, in Korea, some of their population were on the brink of starvation! 

I agree that amounts of money being spent are obscene in this context, and, show an absurd disregard for the social problems caused by real poverty in this country.  This will not be solved by sport.  It reminds me of the 1936 Munich Olympics organised by the Nazis, a publicity stunt to cover up their real intentions, and in this event, to cover up public spending cuts to pay for the war in Iraq,  which are causing critical damage to the social fabric of this country.
Sheila Trapovska

I do feel that the olympics are a good thing for London and the UK.
I do not get why (as everyone will benefit and it was the govenments application) The Olympic comittee and all related builds prior to the games taking place cannot be VAT exempt, after all the tax man will get his share of revenue during the games and afterwards.
As most of the olympic vision, village and facilities are being used as part of a major regeneration of a poorer area of London that the lottery should be picking up some of the tab after all regeneration is a great cause.
Kara

Am I really the only one who knew that this was going to happen, right from the word "go"? Just how far are the costs going to have spiralled by the time the Olympics proper begin?! So far, any positives have been far outweighed by negatives, and I can't see a remedy for the situation any time soon; the suggestion that money will be taken from transport reserves just boggles the mind.
Aaron Brown
Kensington

The Olympic Games is coming in 2012 amd I am sure we all want to be associated with a Games to be proud of.  I hope it has the best project managers and contractors working on it.  If it does, then I believe that we should fully support the games and the allocation of money it needs.
Bernie Muir