The masterplan for the Olympic Park was largely developed in the second half of 2003 by the EDAW consortium and outline planning permissions were secured in autumn 2004. The candidate file submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in November 2004 and subsequently presented to the Evaluation Commission in February 2005 presented the concept of a compact games with the Olympic Park at its heart.

Since winning the right to stage the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games on 6 July 2005, the masterplan has been reviewed, as part of the normal development process for a major project. This review has resulted in changes that will deliver a more compact Olympic Park, while meeting the technical specifications of the IOC. In summary, the revised masterplan will:

Free up some land that previously had been required for the Olympic Park

Avoid the relocation of about 100 businesses, over 70 homes and a place of worship, and safeguard over 1200 jobs

Reduce overall programme and delivery risk

Enhance operational security, needed after the terrorist attacks on 7 July 2005

Be delivered with a potential cost reduction over current estimates of between

£250 million and £350 million.

A detailed review has been undertaken of the Olympic Village and the core Olympic and Paralympic requirements to improve deliverability, efficiency of design, utilisation, reduce risk and costs and smooth the way for best legacy use.

The revised plan therefore proposes realigning the village to locate approximately 80 per cent. of it on the Stratford rail lands immediately to the north of the channel tunnel rail link (CTRL).

The proposed building envelope and mix of uses complies with Stratford City's existing planning permissions and will provide a village of a similar high standard to that proposed in the original masterplan.

This move will enable an earlier start on the village, allowing building work on almost half of it to begin before power lines have been placed underground.

The revised plan is intended to offer improved security through

The relocation of the IBC and MFC within the Olympic Park security cordon, bringing those facilities closer to the centre of the Olympic Park and away from major roads and unsecured car parks

Integrated security measures for Stratford City and the Olympic Games should enable the concurrent construction of the projects to progress more efficiently

A more compact Athletes Village should improve the efficiency of the security operation.

Further work on refining and developing the security aspects of the revised plan is in hand.

Details of the revisions to the masterplan are set out in maps to be placed in the library of the House.

The overall cost reductions for land, remediation, relocation and demolition are £152 million of which £142 million relates to the LDA and £10 million for demolition relates to the ODA as analysed below:

In addition reductions in other ODA costs of between £100 million and £200 million, compared to the current estimated cost for the original masterplan are estimated to be achieved. These savings will mainly be achieved through:

Reduced costs for the construction of the IBC/MPC the relocation of car parking from Fish Island, with 2,000 vehicle spaces being provided in Stratford City multi-storey parking and a smaller temporary multi storey car park on the Pudding Mill site replacing the need for a large multi-storey car park at Fish Island.

The actual savings will be dependent upon the outcome of the commercial deal to be negotiated with Stratford City and further value engineering that will be undertaken as part of the detailed design work.