One year after the Olympics ended, still no sign of the £425m for charities
Howard Lake | 14 August 2013 | News
One year on from the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, the Directory of Social Change has criticised the Government for failing to return the £425 million of Lottery good causes money that was taken to build the Olympic Park.
In a video message to the Prime Minister, DSC Chief Executive Debra Allcock Tyler says that the Government has ignored the pleas of over 3,000 charities who have added their support to the Big Lottery Refund Campaign.
The money was diverted from charitable good causes in 2007 to support the building of Olympics infrastructure. Following criticism from MPs and charities at the time, an agreement was reached between the Government and the Mayor of London to refund the Lottery via Olympics assets sales.
Advertisement
However,many valuable assets such as the Olympic Stadium are being leased, not sold.
The recent announcement that the £528 million underspend in the Olympics budget will not be used to refund the Lottery’s contribution, but will instead be handed to the Chancellor, has only exacerbated campaigners' anger.
In the video Allcock Tyler points out clearly to the Prime Minister: "Lottery money is not tax revenue. It exists to support charitable causes, not to fund large scale public infrastructure projects or to plug the hole in the deficit.
"We cannot wait another ten or twenty years for politicians to right this wrong. Well before then, thousands of charities will have had to close their doors. Their beneficiaries will be beyond help. You and your colleagues will be dead or long since retired. And your legacy will be that you did not give back charities the money that was taken from them."
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.