Allister Hayman,
Regeneration & Renewal,
10 October 2008
The five Olympic host boroughs will join together in a cross-boundary funding partnership to build an Olympic legacy, Regeneration & Renewal has learned.
A senior east London source told Regeneration & Renewal that the five
Olympic boroughs - Hackney, Newham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Waltham
Forest - are working towards forming a "next generation" multi-area
agreement (Maa) to secure as many benefits as possible from having
hosted the Olympics.
Maas are deals that enable groups of metropolitan councils to pool
funding into one pot to spend on cross-boundary priorities.
"The partnership will be something that doesn't require primary
legislation and that can utilise the existing statutory powers of the
partners," the source said. The source added that the deal may take the
form of an urban regeneration company.
The source said the boroughs would lead the partnership, with "heavy
involvement" from new housing and regeneration super-quango the Homes
and Communities Agency, the London mayor, the London Development Agency
and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation.
A source at the Department for Communities and Local Government
confirmed that an Maa was being developed to bring about an Olympic
legacy.
Meanwhile, concerns continue to grow over the funding of the Olympic
Village and the media centre. With the Olympic Village already facing an
estimated shortfall of £400 million, it has emerged that the
contractor Carillion and regeneration developer Igloo are scaling back
plans for the media centre, which will now include temporary structures
following fears it would run over budget and because of difficulties in
raising funds.
Last week, Olympic Delivery Authority chairman John Armitt warned that
the credit crunch had meant that "getting a loan from the private sector
for just about anything at the moment is just about impossible".
Guy Nicholson, the London Borough of Hackney's head of Olympic legacy,
told Regeneration & Renewal there was concern regarding funding for the
media centre, which the council plans to turn into a creative and media
hub after the Games, but he was confident the problems would be
resolved.
- See Physical Regeneration News, p7.
