London Olympics will come in ‘under budget’

The cost of delivering the London 2012 Games is expected to come in £377m under its £9.3bn budget, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said.

The NAO also confirmed the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) programme to build the Games venues and infrastructure is expected to be around £6.7bn, 17% lower than the £8.1bn originally available to it.

The overall underspend comes despite the fact organisers had to take on an additional £500m additional costs for venue security after private security contractor G4S failed to provide enough staff.

Today’s NAO report urges government to deploy the skills developed on the construction of Olympic Games venues and infrastructure – particularly in project management, contracting and risk management – to other public sector projects.

The £377m underspend figure will depend on the accuracy of assumptions about remaining expenditure – including converting the Athletes’ Village for residential use and settling outstanding contracts with suppliers – and will not be known precisely until 2014.