In a written statement to Parliament the Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson has revealed that the projected cost of the Olympic Games has fallen by £528 million.

This marks a further increase on the £377 million underspend projected in October 2012.

The announcement of the savings was not uncontroversial, however.

In the build-up to the Games the last Government raided £425 million from the Big Lottery Fund to pay for stadia and infrastructure in London.

Now the Government plans to hand all of this surplus to the Treasury while overlooking the charities and community groups who lost out when Big funding was diverted.

Jay Kennedy, director of policy and research at the Directory of Social Change (DSC), which is leading the Big Lottery Refund campaign, said: "Hard-pressed charities have effectively been used as an insurance policy for the Games planners.

"Now that this money has gone unspent there really is no morally defensible reason why charities should not be paid back."

"There is a concern," continued Kennedy, "That the Government is playing politics with this money and using it to bring down the headline deficit figure.

"In the meantime small community groups struggling for funding are being told to wait until potentially 2030 for a return of this money. It is simply not good enough."

DSC has developed a website to support the campaign: www.biglotteryrefund.org.uk which outlines the full story behind the raid of lottery funds.

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