The London Assembly has drawn attention to one of the elephants currently stuck in the Olympics room.
It estimates in a nrew report which you can read here - EMBARGOED Part 1 - Olympic Park transfer and continuing liabilities without foreword.pdf
I will put a call into the LDA and mayor's office this morning to see how concerned they are about this, but it's good that the Assembly is bringing the matter to the forefront of talks around the mayor's various agency functions.
The London Assembly's Olympic Park transfer and continuing liabilities report, published this morning, warns that the LDA's unresolved Olympic financial commitments have implications for mayoral funding for economic development as well as plans to fold the LDA's functions into the
A long-running deal to transfer the LDA's Olympics land debt-free to the government and City Hall-owned Olympic Park Legacy Company was signed off on 29 September.
Under the deal, the LDA, which has spent £1.345bn developing the Olympic Park, received £138m in cash and was relieved of £300m of committed future contributions to the Olympic Delivery Authority.
It was also required to repay £369m of its government debt between 2011/12 and 2013/14 with remaining liabilities paid over a 10-year period.
The London Assembly writes: "In 2011/12, the LDA will still have £387m of government debt to repay. If the LDA is abolished these commitments will need to be settled as part of the winding-up process."
Additionally the LDA has £25m of OPLC commitments and land purchase compensation claims outstanding estimated at £41m. The Assembly writes: "It is not yet clear how these liabilities will be met."
Elsewhere the report warns that plans to transfer the OPLC's functions to a Mayoral Development Corporation could reopen "complex questions about the allocation of debt ... with consequential delay in the development of legacy plans".
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