London's mayor Ken Livingstone and culture secretary Tessa Jowell have agreed to sell up to £2 bn (almost EUR 3 bn) of land around the Olympic Park in east London after the 2012 Olympic games in a move aimed at repaying the increasing costs of the event, newspaper Financial Times reported. The paper added that the costs of the games last week reached £9.3bn.

London's mayor Ken Livingstone and culture secretary Tessa Jowell have agreed to sell up to £2 bn (almost EUR 3 bn) of land around the Olympic Park in east London after the 2012 Olympic games in a move aimed at repaying the increasing costs of the event, newspaper Financial Times reported. The paper added that the costs of the games last week reached £9.3bn.

The money will be used to pay back the National Lottery, from which some £ 675 mln was taken earlier this year to keep up with the spiralling costs of the event. Another £650 mln has been pledged as compensation to the London Development Agency for land purchase costs.