The London Development Agency has contacted me in response to what it terms an "alarmist" London Assembly report published earlier this week which suggests that plans to abolish the regeneration agency by March 2012 would leave £387m of outstanding Olympic Park debt that could have "major implications" for funding programmes across the capital.
The LDA said the following: "The overall deal to transfer the Olympic park represents good business for the LDA, as it will bring us a net benefit of around £875m - through sales, the dropping of commitments and savings on finance costs.
"The question raised by the Assembly about the outstanding debt is largely irrelevant. As a body statute, our assets and liabilities fall to the Government or another body to which these are assigned under statute. So if we are folded into the GLA, that's where the debt - and our assets - will go."
I can see what the LDA is saying. But still £387m of outstanding Olympic debt for Londoners, whether its held by the LDA or the GLA, is not I think irrelevant.
As so often I keep returning to the Micawber (pictured) Principle: ""Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."
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