London Olympics Bill

I agree that London will benefit enormously. I hope that the hon. Lady will take part in the Committee stage, when we can tease out how much London council tax payers will be responsible for. It would also be sensible if they could see on their bills a statement of how much the Olympics are costing them each year. I have long believed that there should be a bigger role for the private sector in the delivery of the Olympics. We want to ensure that the private sector has as much access as possible to the bidding. I am slightly concerned that an organisation such as the London Development Agency could itself take responsibility for construction. With the best will in the world, while it may be a good commissioner, it is not a good provider. We have to ensure that the private sector gets as much access to the contracts as possible. One of the issues that I was keen to tease out from the Secretary of State was planning. The Bill gives the ODA planning powers similar to those that the London Docklands Development Corporation had, and we have seen what a success the LDDC was. One thing that concerns me is that the current compulsory purchase powers in the planning Acts are passed over to the ODA for the purposes of the Bill. If that happens, many businesses will find themselves not receiving the compensation for removal that they believe, and their valuers tell them, that they need and deserve. If we were, for instance, to adopt the French system for the provision of the Olympic facilities, people could be bought out at a price that they could accept and there would be no delays in delivery as a result of the planning system. The planning system could be one of the keys to delays and hence cost overruns. Why is the Minister not prepared to adopt the French system of buying people out? We have also to consider the impact on businesses around the Olympic site that perhaps do not fit the image of the modern Olympics, such as old warehouses that are not a pretty site but are outwith the envelope of the Olympic developments. What sort of compensation should they be looking for? Several hon. Members have raised the issue of transport, and earlier this week we debated the Crossrail project and the impact that its construction might have on the Olympics. My hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field), who unfortunately cannot be here this afternoon, made the point that Crossrail will be being built during the Olympics and will mean that Charing Cross road will be closed for two years, not only to traffic but to pedestrians. The businesses in Charing Cross road, especially the bookshops, are part of the cultural offering that London makes to any visitor, and those businesses will suffer severely. I was pleased to hear that the Select Committee will be able to consider the interaction of Crossrail and Olympic construction, and I hope that such issues can be resolved sensibly, because I am a great supporter of both. We want to see London’s transport links developed, but we must be careful about the interaction of their construction with the construction of the new Olympic venues and village. The pressure on the construction industry will be enormous. Hon. Members have already mentioned the need to ensure that we have enough people in training to provide the building skills that will be required, but we must recognise that people will need to come in from outside the UK. We should encourage as many as possible to come to ensure that we can deliver all the projects. The East London line extension is one of those projects and the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) has already mentioned the impact on his constituency. It will also have an impact on my constituency. Several stations will be closed for varying periods—two years, 18 months, a year.