Olympic Games 2012: Legacy
2:04 pm
Lord Mawson (Crossbench)
My Lords, with an eye on the clock, I thank the Minister for his very helpful comments and for the way in which he has responded to the debate. We need to keep the dialogue going. There is not time now to take further the points that he makes, but I will be happy to host a visit to the Bromley-by-Bow Centre for him and other noble Lords who are interested and to show you what the issues look like from the inside of a housing estate a few hundred yards from the Olympic site. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Coe and Lord Moynihan, for their contributions. I am very confident that they will ensure that we return with a very large bag of medals and that the sporting event will be run extremely well. I thank my noble friend Lady D'Souza for helping me to prepare for the debate.
I also thank all noble Lords who have taken part in what has been a far-reaching and, I hope, helpful debate. In the coming months and years, I shall try to keep these concerns before the House and update of the House on progress. My purpose in raising these issues is to attempt to give a view from the inside of the East End of London into what some of these complex issues look like on the ground and to share with your Lordships' House the opportunities that now exist to help us all to learn the lessons of the Dome and other regeneration projects that have not delivered the added value that we had hoped. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Young, that the key is to bring together the macro-responsibilities of the public sector with the detailed micro-understanding of business and social entrepreneurs who are now delivering sustainable projects on the ground in the area.
The debate has enabled me to show your Lordships' House the work of social entrepreneurs which is still too little understood but which has important national and international implications for how we regenerate some of our poorest communities. I hope that we have all found this a helpful debate. I beg leave to withdraw the Motion for Papers.