November 2012
Featured in this insight: Construction, Financial services, Sports & physical activity
UK economy boosted by Olympic construction: A study conducted by accountancy firm Grant Thornton has found that the construction of the Olympic Village and other Olympic venues generated an extra £7.3bn for the UK economy.
The research also found that an extra 158,600 job years had been created (or 158,600 jobs for one year) between 2007 and the first quarter of 2012. This was due to the £6.5bn spent by the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Of the economic sectors measured, the construction industry gained the most jobs from the ODA's spending, with 45,000 job years created. These figures, however, do not take into account other construction work that would have taken place had the Olympics not been held in the UK.
More than half of the ODA's contracts (54%) went to companies based in the South-east and London. As a result of this, these areas made more from the ODA's spending between 2007 and the start of 2012 than the rest of the UK combined.
London's economy saw an extra £2.8bn of value added; more than double that of the South-east with £1.05bn. The East of England gained £950m, with the rest of the UK gaining a combined total of £2.48bn.
Sports minister Hugh Robertson said: "The legacy from the London 2012 Games gives us an opportunity to regenerate East London, maximise opportunities to drive economic growth and encourage a generation to choose sport."
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