2012 should escape 'drastic' cuts in spending review
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The 2012 Olympics will avoid drastic cuts in Wednesday's Comprehensive Spending Review, I have learned.
The which is building the facilities, will be told to make savings of around £30 million but there will be no major challenges to the £9.3 billion budget.
The savings are similar to the which the ODA was first told by the Government to make last May. Those did not lead to major changes in the project.
Much of the Olympic Park will be finished next summer so it would have been counterproductive to have started slashing funds now. Most of the £8 billion earmarked for the building has been spent.
Although there is around £600 million left in contingency funds, it is believed that the ODA should be given access to that cash in the next crucial 12 months.
The rest of the budget will be needed for security. Given that the Government has announced this week that keeping the Games safe is a key priority, there is also little scope for cuts.
However, today's Strategic Defence and Security Review has found some efficiency savings in the Olympic security budget saying it needs to make the programme as cost-effective as possible. It is expected that spending on security could be as much as £1 billion.
The biggest dispute involving the Treasury and Ministers from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has been over the funding of elite athletes. I understand that the money for competitors is secure in the run-up to 2012 but it is likely that there will be cuts to the budgets of governing bodies, possibly of around 30%.
The Government agency receives around £50 million in Exchequer funding for Olympic athletes annually with the same again in Lottery grants.
The major cuts are expected to affect which funds grass roots sports through grants to governing bodies. It received £123 million in central funding this year with a similar amount in Lottery provision.
Today the Shadow Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell told me she is concerned school sports initiatives will be hit by the cuts
The details of the Olympic funding will not be announced by the Government on Wednesday. The cuts are likely to be made public on Thursday.
I'm ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ London's Olympics Correspondent, which means I report on every aspect of the preparations for 2012. I'm going to be telling you what people are saying about London's preparations - both in the Olympic corridors of power and on the streets of the capital - and I want to hear your views.
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