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Roger Casale (Wimbledon): I welcome the statement and the exciting prospect of the Olympics coming to
London. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, if we are to win the wholehearted support of Londoners—and, indeed, of people across the country—for the bid, we must create as many opportunities as possible for people to engage with the bid's preparation, advance their own ideas and contribute their experience both to improve the bid and to identify how they could benefit if it is successful? With that in mind, may I remind my right hon. Friend that, although we no longer have football in south-west London, at least not in my constituency, we have experience of tennis and other sports? We in south London as a whole will consider—this has sometimes not been the case in the Mayor's considerations—how we can benefit, in particular, by improving the transport infrastructure if the bid is successful.
Tessa Jowell: I thank my hon. Friend, and hope that when the bid team is appointed and gets under way, precisely the imagination that he describes will be applied to ensuring that the Olympics means something to people throughout the country, not just in London, and to people of all ages as well.
Mr. Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath): I too unequivocally welcome the announcement that the Secretary of State has made today. She knows that I have been a passionate advocate for an Olympic bid. Does she recognise that there will be particular pleasure in my constituency because, as she will know, there is only one venue in the UK that was used for the 1948 Olympics that will be used in 2012? That venue is Bisley, for shooting, which straddles the boundary between my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr. Malins). Will she be happy to work with all members of the all-party sports group, of which I have the honour to be deputy chairman? Of course our chairman, Lord Pendry, sits in the upper House, so he is not with us today. Does she agree that all hon. Members from whichever party have to recognise that far more of our constituents care about sport than about politics and that the bid should be a unifying force? I passionately hope that we win it.
Tessa Jowell: I thank the hon. Gentleman, and I certainly agree that in any vote sport would have it over politics with all our constituents. Bisley was an extremely successful location for shooting during the Commonwealth games. Clearly, his constituents will look forward with excitement to the possibility of being part of the Olympic facilities.
Jim Dowd (Lewisham, West): May I enter a more sceptical note than seems to have been the case so far? May I tell the Secretary of State that I am persuadable on the matter, but at the moment, I am not sure that this is a wise move, and many of my constituents share that view? Given that Greater London Authority ratepayers have experienced a 30 per cent. increase this year alone, may I ask her about the £20, 25-year fund? Can she clarify whether it will start at £20 and remain like that over the 25 years, or whether it will start at £20 and end up with a much higher figure? Can she confirm that the total exposure if the bid is unsuccessful will be £17 million, which she identified, and will she say how that figure will be broken down and who will pay for it? What proportion of that £17 million will be allocated to the
entertainment, wining and dining, inducements and downright bribery that have been the hallmark of Olympic bids?
Tessa Jowell: My hon. Friend is consistent in his scepticism, and I hope very much that we will prove him wrong during the months and years ahead. I think that he will take heart from the fact that there has been overwhelming support not just from people in London, but from people throughout the country. The results of the opinion polling that my Department undertook as part of the preparation for the bid were extraordinarily consistent. He refers to the costs of bidding. Those costs will be shared between the public sector and the private sector. The cost identified is up to £30 million, half of which we expect to come from the private sector and half of which will come from apportionment between the London Development Agency and my Department. There will be some acceleration in the built facilities, and we expect that work will start on an Olympic pool at Stratford ahead of a decision on whether we have won. That is an important legacy point because that part of London needs an Olympic-sized pool. I hope that that is one bit of evidence to show how the principle of ensuring a good legacy informs decisions even at this early stage.
Simon Hughes (Southwark, North and Bermondsey): Ministers know that I am 100 per cent. enthusiastic and committed to the bid, and if I have the privilege of being elected Mayor of London next year, I will give the Government my full support and co-operation, and make sure that we do not just win the bid, but go on to have a brilliant Olympics. In addition to the funding proposals that the Secretary of State has set out, which work out at £500 per band D household in London—not an excessive amount over 20 years—can she tell us whether, if we win the bid, the Government will reconsider whether they should put something into the kitty? At the moment, there is money in the kitty only for the bid, not for the Olympics. What is the legacy for transport, housing and jobs? As a London Member of Parliament, she knows that improvements to those will be to the benefit of London for a generation or more, and to the benefit of the country for a generation or more, too.
Tessa Jowell: I thank the hon. Gentleman. Clearly, the support for the Olympic bid will be a rare moment of consensus in the forthcoming mayoral campaign. Let me address his specific points about transport, housing and jobs. On transport, I have already identified the way in which transport infrastructure will be improved: specifically, the extension of Stratford station and the rebuilding of Bromley-by-Bow station, to ensure that they have the necessary capacity. There will be more improvements: the upgrading of certain rail links, the upgrading of motorway links and so forth. A programme has therefore been identified and costed.
On housing, the Olympic village will have accommodation for 4,000 people. After the Olympics, that will become housing for people moving into the regenerated Thames gateway. On jobs, the estimate is that the Olympics will generate in the region of 10,000
jobs between now and 2012–13. Not all of them will be permanent long-term jobs, but that is a huge boost for employment in east London.
Andrew Bennett (Denton and Reddish): Will my right hon. Friend accept that given the corruption in the Olympic movement, the problems of drugs in some of the sports involved, and the overheating of much of the London economy, many people are not very pleased with her announcements today? Will she give a guarantee to the House that it will be paid for by the people of London, and will not be paid for at the expense of transport links, regeneration links and sport facilities in the English regions?
Tessa Jowell: In relation to my hon. Friend's point about the International Olympic Committee and its past reputation, we must recognise that that is in the past. Its reputation suffered seriously, and Jacques Rogge, the new president of the IOC, has taken vigorous and rigorous steps in rewriting the rules to ensure that corruption, wherever it is identified, is not part of the Olympic system. Tight rules are being drawn up, and it is important that we recognise that progress. On his second point, yes, London will pay a major part of the cost of the Olympics, but the lottery will do so too. That is important because of our ambition and aim that the Olympics should belong to the whole United Kingdom and not just to London.
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield): Despite my natural disappointment that the west midlands has not been chosen, the right hon. Lady is right to choose London. The experience of the Manchester bid showed that, unfortunately, the bids have to be based on cities that other delegates, from other parts of the world, recognise. That is unfortunate but true. She was wrong, however, to chastise my hon. Friend the Member for
Maldon and East Chelmsford (Mr. Whittingdale) for asking about the details of costing, because the devil is in the detail. We know from the dome that while it was a good idea, costs spiralled out of control. We would therefore welcome more detail in the near future. In that respect, as the right hon. Lady recognises that the legacy is important, when will the detailed transport plan be published? That is important, given the transport difficulties in Atlanta and Sydney.
Tessa Jowell: I am glad that the hon. Gentleman is so in touch with reality that he realises that the choice must be London not Lichfield. In relation to the steps that we have taken on costings, even at this stage—let us remember that we are talking about costings that will be realised in nine years' time—my right hon. Friend the Minister for Sport and I have visited six previous or prospective Olympic capitals precisely to make a proper assessment of what running an Olympics costs. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, has commended the exemplary approach of the Government in preparing to make this decision.
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