The London Daily News

Olympic organisers have raided contingency funds to keep construction on track.

£461m out of the £2bn budget is being used to bail-out two projects after they failed to attract any private investment.

The £900m Olympic Village will receive £326m, while two media centres, costing a total of £355m, will get an extra £135m.

Australian constructors Lend Lease, who were building the Village, did not get £40m in from the private sector and plans to raise cash by selling part of the project have hit the buffers in the current economic downturn.

Necessary

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell defended the bail-out saying it was necessary:

"The Village and media centres are absolutely essential to a successful London Games with a real lasting legacy.

"With private sector funding now much more difficult to secure because of the global economic downturn, it is right that we take steps to safeguard these projects."

Shadow Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said: "This a no surprise given the immovable construction date for 2012. It was inevitable.

The Olympic Delivery Authority has admitted the downturn threatened the projects, but pledged the Games would not exceed its budget - a budget that tripled from £3.4bn to £9.3bn.