Lord Coe plays down economic fears over London 2012

LORD Sebastian Coe has reiterated his belief that the London organising committee will continue to thrive despite the economic downturn.

_{FLYING HIGH: Lord Coe insists London 2012 is ahead of schedule (Getty Images)}

With the nation elbow-deep in economic recession, fears have mounted that the cost of the Games would exceed the £9.3billion budget and securing private sector would prove troublesome.

Locog intend to raise £2billion through the private sector while £1billion is required for the Olympic Village but Coe insists the credit crunch can prove beneficial for the preparation of the Games.

"I hate to say it but we're actually a little ahead of schedule. The building of the Olympic Stadium was supposed to start in August but it actually started in May," he said.

"I took Roger Bannister around the Olympic Park the other day who was absolutely awe-struck by what has been achieved.

"We're not sitting in a state of anxiety but it would be very naive of me to say anything other than this is a very complex piece of project management.

"We live in uncertain economic times but having said that there is probably no better time to have a large piece of public construction in a challenged part of East London that wouldn't be going on normally even in the next two years.

"And the Olympic Delivery Authority, whose responsibility is to get the best deal for everyone concerned, will tell you that this is a more benign environment than a couple of years ago when everything was overheated added to the fact that Terminal 5 is now out of the way.

"So it's a lot more unlikely that we'll meet any of the specialised or skilled blockages along the way."

And Coe was quick to reiterate that the fundamental reason that the initial projected budget of £2.3billion has since risen to £9.3billion is the investment in the regeneration of East London.

"The bid was not based on a false promise," he added. "What we were very clear about was the opportunity for a drive towards sports participation which as we know over the last 35-40 years has fallen off the cliff.

"What I will say is that it probably should not have needed the Olympic Games to have prompted the regeneration of a very challenged part of the UK.

"The budget on the venues has in fact changed very little but the move towards ambition and regeneration has improved significantly and that's why the budget has gone up.

"The original figure was the number of £4billion which was the total available to us from public and private sources - we always made it clear that of course extra funding would be needed if we wanted to go down the regeneration path.

"And that was a route that we quite sensibly decided to go down."

GERARD MEAGHER