Moore: Scottish Firms Losing Race for Olympic Contracts (Edinburgh Pentlands Liberal Democrats)

Edinburgh Pentlands Liberal Democrats <nm.gregory@btinternet.com>

Moore: Scottish Firms Losing Race for Olympic Contracts

April 29, 2009 11:12 AM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

MP Michael Moore has joined parliamentary colleagues in calling for the government to ensure that Scottish firms are allowed to benefit from the opportunities offered by the 2012 Olympics.

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats have shown that the vast majority of Olympic contracts have been won by firms in London and the South East. Contracts distributed through the CompeteFor website, which was intended to help spread the economic benefits of the London games, have so far amounted to just £19 million of the total £3.5 billion. Of this, the value of contracts awarded to firms in Scotland is £10,000 - compared to £8.7 million for London, £7.2 million for the West Midlands, and £2 million for South East England.Michael Moore MP: Borders

The most recent statistics available show that overall, only one third of contracts awarded by the Olympic Development Authority have gone to businesses based outside of London and the South East of England.

Commenting, Mr Moore said:

'When the government bid for the Olympics they assured us that companies across the UK would stand to benefit from the commercial opportunities offered by the London games. These latest figures reveal that people and communities across Scotland and the Borders are failing to see their fair share of the promised economic windfall.

'At a time when families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet, Ministers should be doing more to enable companies outside of London to participate fully as the country prepares for 2012'.