Dome sale 'was value for money'

Friday, 18 November 2005 12:00 AM

The sale of the ill-fated dome offers "fantastic value for money" for taxpayers and local residents, the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has insisted.

It was responding to a report by the public accounts committee in September, which raised doubts about the way in which the building was sold to Meridian Delta and the Anschultz Entertainment Group last summer.

Under the deal, the new owners took on redevelopment over 20 years of the whole northern Greenwich peninsula, including the building of a major office development and some 10,000 new homes.

The dome - initially built to celebrate the millennium - would be preserved until 2018, to be turned into a large indoor sports and arts arena and leisure complex. It has since been named as the 20,000-seat gymnastics and basketball venue for the Olympics in 2012.

This deal - arranged by the ODPM and English Partnerships (EP), which took control of the dome in 2001 - was the result of a second attempt to sell the dome, after the first collapsed.

In its report, the PAC warned that these circumstances made it "difficult to be confident that the deal which was finally secured offered the best value for money that could have been achieved".

It also criticised the way the ODPM and EP had handled the balance between selling the land - which ministers initially wanted to keep, but which was of high market value - and the building itself, and said they had failed to promote the building's best qualities.

In addition, it questioned the way EP is going about reclaiming taxpayers' money, saying that the planned approach - profit share - was unreliable, and would be better replaced with the taking of a percentage of gross takings.

Responding last night, however, London minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the government "remains confident" that a good deal had been struck, saying it offered "fantastic value for money for both taxpayers and local residents".

More than one third of the 10,000 new homes being built in Greenwich would be affordable, he said, while deal also provided as new shops and offices, public spaces and transport improvements.

Regeneration in the area would also create 24,000 jobs and bring in £4 million in private sector investment, Mr Fitzpatrick added.

Tags: