My Lords, the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund—the OLDF—was established for the purpose of holding lottery funding for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The sum of £2.175 billion of National Lottery funds was raised for the Olympics out of a total funding package of £9.3 billion. The statutory instrument before us is an order that will wind up and distribute the remaining funds of the OLDF. The order provides for the remaining £69 million to go to the National Lottery Distribution Fund to be distributed in the usual proportions: that is, 40% to the Big Lottery Fund and 20% each to arts, heritage and sport good causes.
Lottery funds contributed hugely to the costs of staging this tremendous and transformative event, and it is right that we are able to give back to the NLDF in order to support good causes throughout the country. This approach will ensure that all the National Lottery
distribution bodies benefit from these funds, given that they all were affected by the raising of funds for the Olympics.
While the order before us today is straightforward, it is worth taking a moment to pause, reflect and acknowledge the significant role that lottery funding had in supporting the extraordinary London Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2012. It was a once in a lifetime event which bestowed huge benefits on the whole country beyond the Games themselves. Thus the decision was taken, with cross-party support, to use lottery funds in the belief that the benefits to the country in sport, heritage, culture, tourism and regeneration would be greater than the disbenefits brought by a reduction in funding to other good causes.
The memories of that summer will remain with us for many years, from the feats of the elite athletes in our world-class stadiums to the extraordinary efforts of the thousands of volunteer Games Makers. More than that, the Games have left a lasting legacy: 1.7 million more people are playing sport once a week than when we won the bid in 2005; there are new homes and jobs in east London; there has been an increase in tourist numbers and spending; and there has been a huge boost to investment in the UK and to UK trade overseas. This legacy has been hailed by the IOC as a blueprint for future hosts. It has been an immense success for our whole country, and I believe that the return on this investment, funded in part by lottery money, is immense.
This success cannot be separated from the National Lottery. Indeed, in the recent recognition of the National Lottery’s 20th anniversary, the Olympics were brought up again and again as an example of the extraordinary effect that National Lottery funding can have. The investment from the National Lottery has paid truly exceptional dividends.
Some £79 million was previously given to distributors from the OLDF under regulations in July 2014. This, along with the £69 million remaining in the fund, is over and above the £675 million that will go back to distributors from the sale of land in the Olympic park from the early 2020s onwards. We therefore expect lottery distributors to receive back a total of around £823 million. This represents around 38% of the over £2 billion of lottery funding made available for the Games, in addition to all the extraordinary benefits to the country that I set out earlier.
The funds from the OLDF that are being returned to the NLDF will be put to good use. In anticipation of these funds, the previous Secretary of State for Culture held conversations with lottery distributors in late 2013, leading to a series of announcements of new funding programmes. These include: funding from the Arts Council England to promote the best of arts and culture from the UK to overseas countries; funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to mark significant anniversaries across the UK; a programme from Sport England to improve the outdoor play areas in school; and many more.
The order dissolves the OLDF, which was set up specifically for the Olympic Games. Through sharing the remaining funds across the distribution bodies in
the usual proportions, it also represents the Government’s strong commitment to ensure that good causes are supported fairly and well into the future. I beg to move.