# Big Lottery Refund campaign secures £148 million refund

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/08/01/big-lottery-refund-campaign-secures-148m-refund/
- Published: 2014-08-01T14:53:54+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The cross-charity campaign to persuade the Government to return the £425m in Lottery
cash that it diverted to fund the London 2012 Olympics has resulted in an initial
payment of £79 million this week. A further £69 million will be paid back ‘later
in the year’, making a total of £148m in repayments for 2014.

The [Big Lottery Refund](http://www.biglotteryrefund.org.uk) campaign has been led
by the Director of Social Change and has been supported by 3,600 charities. It has
worked to secure the immediate return of what it called “the raided cash” after 
the end of the Olympics.

> Without their support and pressure, I honestly believe Government might have just
> siphoned this cash off somewhere else.
> 
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> Jay Kennedy, DSC

The current Government has promised to honour the deal, but not committing to paying
the money back until the 2020’s.

## Partial and last minute payment

As it is, the partial refund was paid only at the very last minute. Former Sports
Minister Hugh Robertson had promised that up to £150 million of unspent Lottery 
cash and proceeds from the sale of the Athlete’s Village would be returned to the
Lottery distributors by July 2014. The payment, and only part of it, was made in
the last few days of the month.

The Big Lottery Fund is set to receive around £60m from this refund, with the rest
going to the other lottery distributors.

Jay Kennedy, Director of Policy and Research at DSC. said:

> “This is a brilliant victory for our supporters – their hundreds of letters to
> MPs and Ministers, statements to the press, and awareness-raising have held Government
> to account. I want to thank them for their efforts. Without their support and 
> pressure, I honestly believe Government might have just siphoned this cash off
> somewhere else. Now that it has been returned to the Lottery it can benefit charitable
> good causes across the country.”

He added that the campaign was far from over. He said:

> “This announcement shows what we can achieve if we keep fighting. The full balance
> of what is owed remains. We still need people to join this campaign and to keep
> up the pressure. Our message to the Government is: we will not stop asking!”

 * **[Spirit of 2012 makes £3.5 million investment following Glasgow Commonwealth Games](https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/08/06/spirit-2012-makes-3-5m-investment-following-glasgow-commonwealth-games/)**(
   6 August 2014)
 * **[Government sparks more criticism with further delays to £425 million Olympic repayment](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/05/12/government-sparks-criticism-delays-425m-olympic-repayment/)**(
   12 May 2016)
 * **[Voltek1000 to raise funds for Gurkha Welfare Trust in memory of Olympic stuntman](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/06/27/voltek1000-raise-funds-gurkha-welfare-trust-memory-olympic-stuntman/)**(
   27 June 2016)