What the Games will mean for London

The Government has vowed to "pull out all the stops" in its campaign to bring the 2012 Olympics to London.

The Government's decision to put its weight behind the event follows warnings that this could be the capital's last chance to stage the most high profile fixture in world sport for many years.

For now, the capital has development opportunities in Stratford, east London, which is expected to be the focus of the bid.

"We will find ourselves in 2016 in perhaps the same situation as Paris finds itself now, which is that the ground is not available," British Olympic Association chairman Craig Reedie told MPs during a two-day inquiry on the issue.

London council tax increase

By hosting the games, London would be the centre of the sporting world for two weeks - drawing between £280 and £550 million in tourism, £70 million tax on ticket sales and a long-term provision of 9,000 new jobs.

Staging the games is likely to cost £2.375 billion - the cost met partly by a £20 annual increase in council tax in London for 25 years.

The IOC is said to have made it clear that London is the only British city with a chance of success, following two failed bids in Manchester and one involving Birmingham during the 1990s.

But it is the widely-acknowledged success of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester which, supporters say, has showed that the country could stage a major sporting event.

Before then, London's reputation was sullied by the Wembley and Picketts Lock fiascos.

Public backing

Record-breaking Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave and dozens of football clubs, including every Premiership club, have supported a bid.

But critics have pointed to problems in London's transport infrastructure as well as the cost of staging the event.

In January a poll commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, showed 81% of people in the UK were in favour of the bid.

Even when told the cost of putting on the games could be £2.5 billion to the taxpayer, those in favour of a bid was still 73%.

Mr Reedie has told MPs that London stands a "more than reasonable" chance of winning a bid for the games under new rules for selecting host cities.

"The IOC is now a much more open and democratic place than it was. That encourages me to think that a well-organised and well-supported London bid has a more-than-reasonable chance of success," he told MPs.

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