UK charities seek return of £425mn fund taken for London Olympics

Charities have demanded that over £400 million diverted from supporting needy communities in the UK to help fund the London 2012 Olympics be returned.

The money has been taken from the Big Lottery Fund, which makes small grants to local charities and the resulting shortfall has raised questions about the games’ legacy.

As the 2016 Rio Olympics gets underway, there are renewed demands for London’s new mayor and Britain’s new prime minister to ensure the huge chunk of cash is paid back, the UK-based Guardian daily reported Saturday.

London’s last mayor, BorisJohnson, stated that a key legacy aim of the 2012 games was the“convergence in life chances and prosperity between east and west London,and to bring the city and its communities together.”

UK charities insist his failure to return the lottery cash has undermined the proclaimed commitment.

“The government failed to honor its promise to Britain’s communities, which have been struggling in the wake of a devastating recession, to repay the £425m it took from the Big Lottery Fund to construct the Olympic Village,” said Ciaran Price, policy officer with the Directory of Social Change, the organization campaigning to improve conditions for UK charities and leading calls for the return of the diverted fund.

Price further added, “While many charities are seeing demand for their services rising at a speed never before experienced, and while they are finding it more and more difficult to get the financial support they need to meet this new level of demand, the government has been sitting on this money, continuously trying to kick it further into the long grass, hoping we’ll somehow forget about it.”

It emerged following the Games that the UK government had underspent on the 2012 Olympics by more than £500 million but, despite this, none of the £425m taken from the Big Lottery Fund has been returned to the charities.

The organization further insists that it is vital that lottery money goes to the charitable causes for which it is intended.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Theresa May, it is stated that when she was shadow secretary for culture, media and sport she said, “We believe that the lottery should be independent of government but accountable to parliament. It should not become a tool of government.”

Addressing the parliament in 2005, May also claimed that governments should not be able to raid lottery funds. “Every pound that the government chooses to snaffle that way is a pound that cannot go to help community groups or to preserve our historic buildings.”

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