The minister for sport and tourism has announced that the government will be returning £69m of Olympic money to National Lottery distributors.
The move follows pressure by the Directory of Social Change’s ‘Where’s our Big Lottery refund?’ campaign, which has continually asked for the return of funds to the Big Lottery.
In a letter to the DSC, minister for sport and tourism Helen Grant MP announced that following the sale of the Olympic Village, which was completed on 6 August, £69.2m was placed in the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (OLDF).
She said that now the process for the final closure of the OLDF is underway, the balance will be “moved to the National Lottery Distribution Fund for allocation in the usual proportions to the good causes.”
The government had originally said that this £69m from the sale would be returned in July 2014, along with a further £79m in unspent OLDF funds, which were returned in late July.
The National Lottery Distribution Fund distributes money to organisations including the Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the British Film Institute and Arts Council England.
Jay Kennedy, director of policy and research at the DSC, said that when the DSC pressed the government in July, the government “eventually admitted” that it wouldn’t meet the deadline, but then offered no clarity as to when it would be returned, other than saying “later this year”.
Kennedy said: “It is a good thing that now we know that the Village deal has concluded, and the £69m refund is now actually happening, and it isn’t going to drag on further into the end of the year.”
He added that although the letter refers to the money being returned “in the usual proportions”, these were not the proportions in which it was taken from the distributors in the first place. He said that BIG is owed more than it will get, which the DSC and its campaign “are not happy about”.
BIG said in July that it expected to receive £60m from the OLDF over the next few months.
Kennedy said: “At the end of the day, the good news is that we estimate that BIG is going to have another £60m added to its coffers this year, which is great – and they need to crack on with getting this out to support vital organisations, projects and services. Not to mention the other distributors, who should have more to spend on arts, sports, heritage causes etc.”
A Big Lottery Fund spokesperson said: “We were aware that the proceeds of the Olympic Village sale were to be returned to lottery distributors and this meant we were able to establish the £40m Spirit of 2012 Trust.
"We wanted to ensure that we were able to support projects that had a solid legacy aim immediately, rather than waiting for the sale proceeds so we ring fenced the money in anticipation of these funds being returned.”
The government promised to return £675m of Lottery money taken to fund the Olympics, of which £425m came from BIG. The ‘Where’s our Big Lottery refund’ campaign is still ongoing. Kennedy said that the DSC will not give up until £425m is returned to BIG. The £69m refunded, and the £79m returned in July, are seperate from the £675m which the government promised to return.
In her letter, Grant said that the current arrangements represent “the only practical means of returning the Lottery’s additional £675m contribution to the Olympics”.
