Memorandum submitted by the Olympic Delivery
Authority
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is the
public body charged with building the venues and infrastructure
for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. It is
a non-departmental public body that became operational on 1 April
2006, and shares offices with the London 2012 Organising Committee.
The ODA is currently focused on finalising the
Olympic Park and transport plans, to enable effective delivery
in the years to come. A year after the award of the Games to London,
and six years before the 2012 Games, we have made significant
progress:
— Appointing key staff, a Park Wide
Design Team and a Delivery Partner;
— Finalising the spatial masterplan
for the Olympic Park site, based on delivering an excellent legacy
as well as excellent Games;
— Establishing a Planning Committee,
covering the Olympic Park site;
— Preparing the construction programme
for the delivery of Games facilities, based on two years of preparation,
four years of work on site and one year for commissioning and
test events;
— Working with the London Development
Agency to enable land assembly, to appoint site preparation contractors
and to continue work on the powerlines project;
— Working with Transport for London
to ensure the delivery of important transport upgrades, like the
extension of Jubilee Line tube trains;
— Agreeing a deal with Stratford City
and London and Continental Railways for integrating master plans
and securing delivery of the Olympic Village; and
— Launching procurement of an integrated
design and construction team for the Olympic Stadium.
Securing a viable and lasting legacy is central
to the ODA's role:
— Design development over the past
months has focused on ensuring that the plans are fit for purpose
for legacy as well as fit for purpose for 2012, to help create
a regenerated Lower Lea Valley with well-used sports facilities
at its heart. This is the first time that Games and legacy planning
has worked hand in hand.
— The ODA is in continuing discussions
with Government to finalise a full-lifetime budget for the creation
of a platform for regeneration in East London, as well as the
delivery of venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Games.
— To ensure economic and social benefits
in one of the most deprived areas of London, the ODA is working
with the London Development Agency and other key partners, so
that employment and business opportunities are accessible, and
that people and businesses—locally and across the UK—are
capable of accessing these.
Expectations on the London 2012 Games are high,
but we believe that the planning work that partners are undertaking
now creates a firm foundation for the realisation of the full
potential of the project.
THE OLYMPIC
DELIVERY AUTHORITY
Constitution
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was established
by the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 (the
"Act") and became operational on 1 April 2006. The ODA
is a statutory corporation and an executive non-departmental public
body (NDPB) accountable to the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport (who must consult with the Mayor of London on
a number of key issues). For National Accounts purposes, the ODA
is classified to the central government sector.
Section 4 of the Act sets out the functions
of the ODA, which are to do anything necessary for "the purpose
of:
— preparing for the London Olympics;
— making arrangements in preparation
for or in connection with the use or management before, during
or after the Games of premises and facilities acquired, constructed
or adapted in preparation for the Games; or
— ensuring that adequate arrangements
are made for the provision, management and control of facilities
for transport in connection with the London Olympics."
In exercising its functions, the ODA must have
regard to:
— the "desirability, wherever
relevant, of maximising the benefits that may be derived after
the Games from its preparation, whilst contributing to sustainable
development";
— safety of individuals participating
in or attending the Games;
The ODA is led by the ODA Chair (Jack Lemley)
and 13-strong Board with members selected by the Secretary of
State for their wide-ranging expertise. The Chair is responsible
to the Secretary of State for ensuring the ODA fulfils its objectives,
discharges its statutory duties, operates within the limits of
its authority and observes high standards of corporate governance
and financial control.
Management and organisation
Day-to-day management is provided by the Chief
Executive (David Higgins), supported by a team of directors, who
together undertake the strategic planning of the ODA's delivery
programme comprising land, venues and infrastructure and transport.
Details of the Board and senior management structure are attached
as an Annex to this memorandum.
Since April, the ODA has quickly built up its
organisational capacity. We have recruited more than 50 permanent
members of staff and have approximately 100 consultants and secondees,
undertaking transitional and interim roles. We re-appointed the
Edaw consortium, together with Arup and Atkins, as Parkwide Designers
in January to continue their award-winning work on the Olympic
Park and Legacy designs. We announced the appointment of the CLM
Consortium—a team of some of the top construction management
firms, comprising CH2M Hill, Laing O'Rourke and Mace—as
our Delivery Partner at the end of August. They will work closely
with us to programme and project manage the whole procurement
and construction cycle, from design to post-2012 transformation.
We have also established a special committee
of ODA board members, local councillors and other experts, to
exercise the ODA's planning powers, which came into force at the
beginning of September, and have set up a support team through
sharing resources with the four local planning authorities in
the area.
Partnership working arrangements
The ODA is based in offices at 1 Churchill Place,
Canary Wharf, together with the London 2012 Organising Committee.
The two organisations have complementary but distinct roles: the
ODA is a publicly funded body charged with building the venues
and infrastructure for the 2012 Games; the Organising Committee
stages the events of the 2012 Games, and is almost entirely funded
by privately raised revenues and sponsorship. This is sometimes
put more simply: the ODA builds the theatre; the Organising Committee
puts on the show.
Our co-location with the Organising Committee
enables us to work in close partnership with them, under the "London
2012" brand. Close joint working is part of the DNA of the
project.
The Olympic Board co-ordinates the work of the
two London 2012 organisations with a wider programme of work to
ensure that London hosts great Games in 2012, with a sustainable
legacy for London and the UK thereafter. The Board is jointly
chaired by the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport
and the Mayor of London, as political sponsors of the project.
The Board also includes the chairs of the British Olympic Association
and London 2012 Organising Committee, and is attended by the Chair
of the ODA.
The ODA works closely with a number of other
key stakeholders. These include:
— the London Development Agency, who
are acquiring the land in East London's Olympic Park;
— Transport for London and other transport
providers, who are providing the transport improvements on which
our work will depend; and
— the local authorities in the areas
where we will operate, and in particular five boroughs around
the Olympic Park, who provide links into the local communities,
and are working with us to ensure that the Games can deliver a
sustainable legacy for some of the UK's most deprived communities.
THE CHALLENGE
AND THE
OPPORTUNITY
Anyone who has visited the Olympic Park site
in East London will be aware of the scale of the challenge that
faces us. The site consists of engineered land, some of it contaminated,
criss-crossed by major infrastructure—railways, sewers,
powerlines, roads. Developing this site in a way that provides
not only for a great Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2012,
but also for the regeneration of a key growth area in London Thames
Gateway, is challenging but achievable.
The Olympic Park site is also located in one
of the most deprived areas of the UK: three of the five boroughs
surrounding the Olympic Park are among the most deprived local
authorities in England on a variety of indicators, unemployment
rates are significantly higher than the London and national averages,
and health inequalities are marked. For many of these indicators,
inequalities are particularly pronounced in local black and minority
ethnic communities. In addition to the improvements we will create
in the local environment, we need to ensure that we can deliver
benefits to local communities.
The Lea Valley also forms the core of Thames
Gateway, a national and regional priority area for regeneration.
Change is already coming to this area, but the London 2012 project
enables us to deliver higher quality infrastructure, in a systematic
way, and faster than we could otherwise hope to. Beyond the tangible
benefits that will be brought to people living in the area—the
largest new urban park for 150 years, excellent new sporting facilities,
and thousands of new homes and job opportunities—the Games
offers us the chance to change perceptions of East London and
Thames Gateway, and to realise the area's potential as a destination
of choice for people to work, live and enjoy their leisure. This
is an opportunity to redress the east-west imbalance of London's
growth.
THE ODA'S
APPROACH TO
DELIVERY
Put simply, our programme can be split into
three parts:
— two years to make preparations for
delivery, through master-planning, seeking planning permission,
developing our programme and undertaking early enabling works
(while the LDA's programme of land assembly proceeds);
— four years to prepare the land, build
new venues and infrastructure; and
— one year for commissioning and the
test events that will ensure the 2012 Games realise our shared
aspirations.
We are now just over half-way through that first
two year period. We have hit all our major milestones so far.
We have been helped in this by the actions of the Mayor of London
and Government, who put in place arrangements that enabled an
interim team to start operating around a year ago, based within
the London Development Agency and Transport for London.
We have also been developing our plans and programmes,
so that when we gain access to the whole site (subject to the
outcome of the London Development Agency's Compulsory Purchase
Order, this should be July 2007), we can quickly start work in
a systematic and efficient manner, to minimise risk, and ensure
delivery on time and to the agreed budget. The lesson from recent
construction programmes is that time spent in careful project
planning is never wasted: by being clear about the specification
for our projects before we commence construction, we will enable
their successful delivery.
Refining the spatial masterplans
One of the first priorities for ODA's management
and the Parkwide Design Team was to review the spatial master
plans for the Games and Legacy, which were granted planning permission
in 2004. We have revised these to ensure that they are fit for
purpose for the Games, and fit for purpose for the legacy. Working
closely with the London 2012 Organising Committee, we have improved
the visitor and athlete experience for the Games, have integrated
the plans fully with the neighbouring Stratford City development,
have relocated the media and broadcast centre to enhance its legacy
in providing work space for Hackney residents, and have significantly
reduced the amount of earth we will need to move off site and
the consequent disruption to local communities.
Now these plans have been reviewed and agreed
in principle, we are completing environmental and transport assessments
and will be making new planning applications in January, to enable
us to start work on site in July next year. In advance of this,
we will be commencing a programme of community engagement with
local people: this will set out how the plans have changed, and
consult people on these, as well as beginning a long-term programme
of engagement, on the opportunities and impacts of the Games,
and on local priorities for the legacy.
Delivery programme
The revised masterplans will enable us to work
in an efficient and concerted way on site from summer 2007. Late
2007 and early 2008 will be dominated by site preparation and
infrastructure work. Then, with agreed designs for each of the
venues, we will begin construction from summer 2008, allowing
phased completion in 2011. The details of this programme will
be reviewed by our Delivery Partner over coming months to ensure
that they are realistic, affordable and minimise risk.
Policy framework
We have also developed a number of important
policy documents. Our Health and Safety Standard sets out how
we will ensure health and safety for all workers involved in constructing
the London 2012 venues and infrastructure. We also published our
draft Procurement Policy in July, setting out how the ODA will
procure the goods and services it will need, to ensure a collaborative
approach to delivering on time and on budget, to foster and promote
innovation, to ensure best value for money, and to realise our
commitment to truly sustainable Games in 2012. We are currently
working with consultants to develop an equalities and diversity
strategy, and are also undertaking joint work with a number of
partners to deliver our sustainable development strategy.
Other delivery milestones
While these preparations have been taking place,
we have also been making progress on delivery:
— The London Development Agency project
to put the power lines that criss-cross the valley in underground
tunnels is continuing on schedule, as is their programme of land
assembly;
— We have worked with the LDA to appoint
contractors to clean up the Olympic Park, and this team is set
to start work shortly on river wall works on the Aquatics Centre
site;
— We are procuring an integrated design
and construct team for the Olympic Stadium; and
— We are at an advanced stage of negotiations
with Stratford City Developments Limited and London and Continental
Railways on the delivery of the Olympic Village, and have recently
short listed two development partners for this project.
ISSUES ON
WHICH EVIDENCE
HAS BEEN
SOUGHT
Funding
During the process of review of the Olympic
Plans that is set out above, we have worked hard to ensure that
we have identified the financial implications of building a platform
for long-term regeneration, as well as the delivery of venues
and infrastructure for the 2012 Games. This has meant a tough
review of individual venues to ensure that we will only be building
permanent venues if we are confident that they'll have a legacy
use, as well as a review of the level of ground remodelling and
remediation that needs to be undertaken.
We have prepared a long-term budget which we
are now discussing with DCMS and Treasury to agree its appropriateness
and how it will be funded. We believe that the agreement of a
realistic and robust budget will be an important step forward
for the project. We expect to have an outline budget for 2007-08
ready later this year, and to be able to deliver a first draft
of the Corporate Plan incorporating the lifetime budget during
February 2007. It is anticipated that this will be approved during
the first quarter of the 2007-08 financial year.
It is not for us to comment on funding mechanisms,
but it is worth adding that our draft procurement policy sets
out how we will maintain control on costs throughout this project.
The unique nature of the project means that deadlines cannot shift.
We will build on recent good practice, in working with our contractors
to agree prices, and then agreeing a contract form that creates
incentives for delivery on time, within budget and to the required
quality, and shares the risk of cost overruns.
Maximising the value of the Olympic legacy
Delivering a sustainable legacy is central to
the Olympic Delivery Authority's work. As set out above, we have
reviewed our master plans to ensure that the Olympic Park delivers
a great legacy, as well as great Games in 2012. We now have plans
that are better integrated with Stratford City and fit in better
with local regeneration plans. For each of our venues, we are
developing the legacy plans in significant detail, so that before
we start building we have an affordable business plan for their
after-use. For example:
— We have confirmed proposals for a
new tennis and hockey centre in the north of the site. Combined
with the velopark legacy south of the A12, this will create a
sporting anchor, complementing the upgraded provision of sporting
facilities on Hackney Marshes.
— We are developing our concept of
a "Living Stadium" for the Olympic Stadium, to ensure
that this venue—which will be reduced in capacity after
the Games—forms a centrepiece for the local community, with
a programme of events and a mix of uses (based round a core athletics
programme) that make sure that it is used throughout the year.
— We have updated our plans for the
Aquatics Centre to create an inspiring building that is fully
integrated into the legacy plans for the park, with significantly
reduced running costs.
— We are exploring options for legacy
use of the International Broadcast Centre/Main Press Centre, to
maximise its integration into local regeneration strategies in
Hackney Wick.
This approach will deliver a Park which will
be a destination for local people and visitors alike, with a mix
of events and uses that will make it a lively new heart for East
London. We are also working with Government and the Mayor of London
to develop a funding and management regime for the parkland and
venues.
At the edges of the parkland, in the area taken
up by temporary and back-of-house facilities during the Games,
we will have the opportunity to develop new neighbourhoods with
thousands of new homes. We will be working with the LDA, London
Thames Gateway Development Corporation, the Housing Corporation
and local boroughs on plans for these neighbourhoods—how
they connect with other regeneration schemes and surrounding local
communities, and how they can significantly boost London's supply
of housing, including affordable housing.
While our main focus is on the Olympic Park,
work is also advancing at key venues outside London. At Weymouth
and Portland, the upgrades to the National Sailing Academy will
ensure that this new facility has a viable legacy, mixing sport
and leisure uses. Meanwhile the Canoe Slalom Course at Broxbourne
will complement the facilities in the Olympic Park and create
a high quality new sports facility at the north end of the Lea
Valley.
Wider legacy impacts
While it is natural for the ODA to focus primarily
on the legacy of the buildings and infrastructure that we will
deliver, we know that this is only a part of a much wider legacy
proposition. In particular, we are committed to ensuring that
our work can showcase the best of the British construction industry,
and can bring jobs and contract opportunities to people living
and businesses operating around the Olympic Park.
There are three geographies where economic benefits
will operate. Locally, we are working closely with the five local
boroughs and the LDA to implement their Local Employment and Training
Framework, which includes proposals for a job brokerage service
based in Stratford with satellites in other local centres. Regionally,
the Mayor of London will shortly launch the London Employment
and Skills Taskforce for 2012, which provides for dedicated training
and support across the capital. Nationally, we are working with
the London 2012 Organising Committee and the Nations and Regions
Group to develop a proposal for a business club that will enable
all UK businesses to access information and support relating to
Olympic contracting opportunities.
Within the ODA, our priority is to ensure that
our information, procurement and contract management systems can
create opportunities for local people and UK businesses, and provide
as good information as we can throughout the process. Working
together with the Organising Committee, we have put in place a
sign up service, whereby interested businesses can receive regular
updates on procurement and related news of interest to businesses.
We are also working with our Delivery Partner
to ensure that we can provide detailed information on forthcoming
contracting activity and labour needs, which we can pass to local,
regional and national bodies, so that they can tailor existing
training and business support activity. Finally, while the contracts
we let will generally be substantial, we will push our contractors
to make subcontracting opportunities available to the widest possible
range of businesses, particularly in the area around the Olympic
Park.
Expectations of what the 2012 Games will deliver
are high. While the project is still in its early days, we are
convinced that partnership working will enable us to deliver a
project that is remembered for its sustainable legacy as much
as for the fantastic experience of the Games themselves.
6 October 2006
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