THE rejuvenation of the 2012 Olympics site risks isolating some of Britain’s most deprived communities in East London. That’s the warning from the London Assembly with a report this-morning on the organisation due to take ownership of the site after the Games

By Mike Brooke

THE rejuvenation of the 2012 Olympics site risks isolating some of Britain’s most deprived communities in East London.

That’s the warning from the London Assembly with a report this-morning on the Olympic Park Legacy Company, the organisation due to take ownership of the site after the Games.

The Assembly’s Economic Development committee wants to see housing, skills and sporting opportunities available to local communities.

What it doesn’t want is the Olympics site turned into an oasis of wealth’ surrounded by a desert of poverty and deprivation.

“Time is running out and we’re in real danger of missing an historic opportunity to transform some of Britain’s most deprived communities,” said committee Chair Dee Doocey.

“East London deserves a lasting legacy from the Games. A strong legacy of skills, housing, jobs and sports is the only way to stop the Olympic Park becoming an island of prosperity’ cut off from the surrounding community.”

The Games leave behind them a massive new urban park with state-of-the-art sports facilities, new homes and public transport improvements.

Targets must be set for employing people from East London in the park after 2012, the committee urges. Only four per cent of the construction workforce is currently made up of the previously-unemployed from the five host’ boroughs surrounding the site.

New homes being built must be suitable for and available to local people, the committee says, not just wealthy outsiders moving into the area.