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• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

You would not have thought that if you were on the Northern Line this morning.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

I think that brings us to the end of our hour and a half. Mr Higgins, the Assembly is deeply obliged to you for the time you have given this morning. Thank you very much.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Speaking for all my colleagues, we would like very much to welcome your recognition that target setting can end up being slightly a useless box ticking exercise. We appreciated hearing that from you. On the issue of skilled workforce, obviously we are all concerned to ensure that we get as much up-skilled training as possible to ensure the London workforce can take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the Olympics. One slight query here; is there not also a slight problem that, of course, the building of the Olympic site is also taking place alongside many other major building...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Thank you for that. It is a bit confusing, I think, certainly because there are all sorts of budgets running around as well as your own and the outstanding costs to the LDA. The £2.375 billion figure which was cited as being the `guesstimate' for the infrastructure costs is probably not a firm figure and if anything ' and you obviously cannot commit yourselves to say what it will be ' you are saying it is not a firm figure and costs could go higher than that. Therefore Vincent Cable, who quoted you in that debate in Westminster Hall not...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Thank you. Clearly this is an ongoing situation and we have not reached that point yet where we can have an absolutely clear figure; I appreciate that. Obviously we are hoping that you will keep us up to date as you continue. Just a final question; I think we understood from comments made by Richard Caborn MP {Minister of State (Sport))about the LOCOG budget that that had to be raised because of inflationary costs. I wonder whether that is going to be a significant factor in your `guesstimates' 'inflation, which who knows what it might be going up to '...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Angie Bray (AM): You can appreciate, of course, that Londoners might well be interested in having some kind of comfort on this. Clearly people can come along and say `Yes, actually, if we spend a bit more now we can get a better a legacy'. There has to come a point when you say we cannot go on concerning ourselves about legacy if it is actually going to mean that the costs continue to rise. I wondered if there was any kind of comfort there that you could offer Londoners at this stage?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Just one final query. I think what we feel is that part of the problem with the original bid document is that so much of it seems to be providing firm assurances on a set of figures and of course what we are learning now is that those figures were not nearly as firm as they might have been presented at the time. Clearly there will be concern about the fact that all these new factors are being built in.

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

I wonder if therefore it would be helpful if you could give the answer to the next question from Bob Blackman on construction costs before all those Members who have indicated they want to talk on finance. Can you just cover the issue of rise in inflation in relation to construction costs as you have raised it?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

Given the experience within my constituency, in Brent and Harrow at Wembley Stadium, where the cost of rebuilding the stadium now is, at conservative estimates with a small `c', five times the original value that was expected, are you going to undertake a review of that particular project as part of the review of the bid documents?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 14 June 2006

One of the problems about any sort construction like this is the original surveys of the land to make sure the condition is such. Are you satisfied that the surveys that have been done are sufficiently robust to then defend the inflation and the costs expected?