Lottery funding for Olympics should be returned to good causes, says Public Accounts Committee

Howard Lake | 19 April 2013 | News

Lottery money for good causes that was diverted to fund the London Olympics should be returned to good causes, according to the Public Accounts Committee in a report published today.

The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee, today said: "Lottery good causes lost money during the period running up to the Games. They need to be assured that they will get some of this back from the financial returns secured from the development of the Olympic Park.

"The Lottery provided more than £2 billion towards the costs of the Games but has little influence over decisions by the London Legacy Development Corporation about the timing and value of sales over the next two decades. It is not clear that their interest is being adequately promoted and protected."

The Public Accounts Committee's report examined examined the staging of the London 2012 Games and plans for delivering the legacy.

Big Lottery Refund Campaign

The Directory of Social Change (DSC) has welcomed the Committee's report. It is campaigning for the £425 million taken specifically from the Big Lottery Fund to finance the infrastructure for the Games to be returned. Its Big Lottery Refund campaign has attracted support from over 3,400 charities from across the UK.

Jay Kennedy, Director of Policy at DSC said: "It's encouraging to see so many of our concerns being recognised by the Public Accounts Committee, especially the acknowledgement that the Lottery’s interests have been largely ignored. Tens of thousands of charities and countless vulnerable individuals and communities have suffered as a result of this money being taken, and its return is long overdue".

He added: "There is an opportunity here to make this right. The underspend on the Games shows that much of the money didn’t need to be taken from charities in the first place, and there is no reason to delay its return any longer.”

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.