Dome sale branded a "fiasco"

Too many government bodies were involved in the first failed attempt to sell the Millennium Dome a NAO report has claimed.

The report said that key players such as English Partnerships and the New Millennium Experience Company did not have the same aims and said the objectives bidders were asked to meet were too complicated.

The Millennium Dome was eventually sold to Meridian Delta and Anschutz Entertainment Group following a second sale process. The cost to the taxpayer of English Partnership decommissioning, maintaining and selling the Dome was £28.7m.

MP Edward Leigh, chairman of the committee of the public accounts slammed the government’s handling of the sale. He said: “This report shows that the first attempt to sell the Dome proved a complete fiasco. The process was confused and muddled. Every arm of government seems to have had a finger in the pie.”