Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Tomlinson (Labour). It was answered on Tuesday, 17 July 2007.

Millennium Dome

Question: My Lords, does my noble friend not agree that one of the lessons to be learnt from the management of the Millennium Dome is that should the circumstances ever arise again that we have a Conservative Government starting a project, when we knock them out of office we should never inherit it from them?

Answer: My Lords, my noble friend may be rubbing salt into wounds as far as that is concerned. The incoming Labour Administration in 1997 inherited a project which was substantially underway. In retrospect, we all regret the huge losses made on the Dome, but we should recognise that the location of the Dome was an intelligent choice of site for the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula, and future generations will at least benefit from the sacrifices that we made in terms of public expenditure at that time.

Secondary information