The Government yesterday issued a glowing report on the Olympics coming in under budget – despite the cost being almost four times the original estimate. Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said it was a ‘significant achievement’ that spending on the 2012 Games was expected to come in £476million under its £9.3billion budget. But his boast was declared ‘disingenuous’ by critics, who pointed to the initial estimate of £2.4billion made by the Labour Government when London won the bid in 2005. This had ballooned to £9.325billion by 2007, leading to claims that the public was duped over the true cost – or that an overly generous budget had been created to ensure it would not be exceeded. Source: The Coming Crisis
