Olympic Legacy (Supplementary) [4]

Well, (Lord) Seb Coe (Chairman, London 2012) ' who sends his apologies; he cannot be here today, because he is out of the country ' is currently chairing the LOCOG, and I hope will continue to chair it right up to 2012. I have already discussed the importance of building up a huge cultural programme. They recognise the value of what we have created here at the GLA in terms of our stakeholder engagement in our cultural programme. We want to have these working together, not in competition, so we get dramatic added value from that.

Beyond the Games, we want ' having heightened our cultural and artistic profile ' to maintain it. Now, at the moment, as you know, the Government on Monday announced it is reviewing the powers of the Mayor and the Assembly. One of the areas they are looking at is whether or not we should have a role in terms of arts funding and so on. I shall be pushing very hard to say we should. That would be the best way of securing the legacy, that after the Games are over, it is the GLA, through its various entities, that continues that role of maintaining the heightened cultural and artistic activity we will have achieved on the back of the Games.