London Olympics Bill

I thank the hon. Gentleman for those comments. I think that he will reassured by what I am about to say. It is fair to say that although we accepted the £625 million cost right from the outset, we—and, clearly, the Liberal Democrats—have had concerns about the possible effect on London council tax payers. The new tax will simply take the form of a larger levy on council tax bills, so it is not entirely transparent. There is no automatic cut-off after 2012. The extra money is not specifically ring-fenced for the Olympics, in obvious contrast to the congestion charge, where revenue is ring-fenced for value-for-money transport projects. There is no guarantee that the money will not be used to cross-subsidise funding shortfalls elsewhere—for example, if not enough tickets are sold. Those initial concerns have been given further impetus by a number of factors that have become apparent in recent months and that have changed the position substantially since the initial plans for London 2012 were drawn up. First, we now know that previous games have substantially overrun their budgets. Local tax payers in Montreal are still paying off debts incurred at the 1976 Olympics. Sydney’s budget of £l billion eventually came to £2.8 billion. Athens’ budget of £l billion eventually became, as far as we know, £5 billion. Secondly, security costs are likely to soar post-7 July. There cannot be a single Member of this House here today who genuinely believes that the international security situation will improve in the near future. If anything, it is likely to get worse.