Reports: London 2012 - The Olympics as an Engine of Development
Much has been made of the difference between the last Olympic Games to be held in London in 1948 and the upcoming Games of 2012. The event shortly after the war was held for £732,268, while the more recent has cost £9.3 billion. This has been seen as proof of the profligacy of pre-downturn spending. Though there may be some truth to this, the London 2012 Games effectively mark an unequalled attempt to remodel a city using the Games as an engine. There are historical precedents for this idea, going back to the first modern example in Rome in 1960, and reaching a peak in Barcelona in 1992, but no Games have been relied on as the sole engine of development to the extent that the London 2012 Olympics have. Although the 1948 Games took place in a post-war world of rationing, Britain was gearing up to a massive home-building and infrastructure improvement push, prompted and funded by the central government. Though the bureaucracy that oversaw this was still on a war footing, it was adapting to the provision of homes rather than munitions for its returning soldiers. The Games of 1948 were a celebration. In 2012, the need for housing and the infrastructure that supports it may not be as great, but it is still pressing. Yet because the UK economy depends on the stability of housing prices, there is no genuine political will to increase housing supply. The little will that does exist is hampered by a fragmented bureaucracy.
