Cash raised from sale of 68 hectares at Olympic Park will payback lottery money faster then expected

The government will today outline plans of how it will raise cash from land sales at the Olympic Park, it has emerged.


Olympic park

A report out today said that the 拢675m siphoned off from the National Lottery to pay for the rising costs of the Olympics will be paid back once the London Development Agency has recovered the 拢650m it spent on acquiring the Olympic park site.

Olympic minister Tessa Jowell and Ken Livingstone have thrashed out a new Memorandum of Understanding, replacing the previous deal set out in 2003.

The LDA plans to sell of 68 hectares for development and is confident that rising land prices will make a sell-off highly profitable.

Once the LDA has recovered its costs, the memorandum says, there will be a repayment of 拢506m to good causes and 拢125m to the LDA.

Following on from that, the LDA will receive 拢375m, while the lottery will get 拢169m.

In response to the new Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor, the Chair of the Olympic Lottery Distributor Janet Paraskeva said: "We welcome the prospect of significant repayments to the Lottery. Lottery players are being asked to contribute significant sums to the Olympics and it is only right that the Lottery Good causes should share in the fruits of that investment."

This means that most of the lottery money will be replaced faster than first expected.