British industry cold shoulders Greenwich millennium plans

Ministers have agreed to hire a private company at a cost of up to pounds 15m, to raise money for the Millennium Exhibition which, according to a survey by The Independent, is failing to attract interest from major British companies.

IMG, headed by business guru and author Mark McCormack and which raises sponsorship money for the Olympics, has been hired to bring in the pounds 150m needed to ensure the future of the scheme.

While IMG's expertise is seen as essential, it comes at a high price. Colin Tweedy, director general of the Association of Business Sponsorship of the Arts, said: "IMG is absolutely essential. Without them, Millennium Central would not have a cat in hell's chance of getting the money. With them, they've got a good chance, but it will be very expensive. Normally, they charge between 5 and 10 per cent [pounds 7.5m to pounds 15m] but possibly as Millennium Central is government backed, they might get it cheaper."

A survey conducted by The Independent found that of 40 of Britain's largest companies, only 11 said that they would definitely be supporting the Greenwich millennium project. Just under half of those which replied said they had no plans to contribute to the Government's millennium plans. The remainder said they were still in discussions as to whether to support the scheme.

The exhibition organisers, Millennium Central, now headed by Jenny Page, formerly the chief executive of the Millennium Commission, have turned to IMG to raise the money.

According to insiders, the past year's attempt at raising the private money has been a disastrous failure. First, there was Michael Heseltine's attempts to bludgeon companies into giving money, and then there were three months of political uncertainty.

One source said: "We have a lot of catching up to do. Many companies were put off by the doubts over the scheme, but we remain hopeful. Even when things were at their worst, we had Japanese companies ringing up and saying they were interested in putting in money."

Some of the biggest British companies have rejected the project altogether. A spokesman for the Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group, which will not be supporting the dome in any way, said: "It is not the most effective way for us to talk to our customers." Mining company RTZ said: "We have a firm policy on what we spend money on in that sort of area; we aim to set up long term partnerships in education, environment and world affairs."

Others, such as Guinness and Standard Chartered, said that most of their business is conducted overseas and it is inappropriate to support events solely in Britain.

Even many of those companies supporting the project, will be making only small donations. For example, Michael Heseltine announced in July of last year that top city institutions, such as Barclays, Lloyds, Midland and NatWest would be joining the City of London Corporation in supporting the Millennium. In fact they have jointly agreed to sponsor a pavilion in one of the 12 "time zones" under the new Greenwich dome. The pavilion will cost around pounds 12m, half of which is being paid for by the City of London, leaving about a dozen banks and city institutions contributing a total of just pounds 6m towards the Government's scheme. Similarly, a spokesman for the Woolwich building society, which is committed in principal to giving some money to the exhibition, said "our contribution will be very small".

Further bad news for the organisers came from British Telecom. While the company is planning to make one of the most substantial contributions, thought to be approaching pounds 12m, it has asked that none goes toward the Greenwich dome or any other London project. A spokesman for the company said: "Our interest is very specifically with the broader national celebrations."

Several other companies have refused to support the London project, instead opting to give money towards regional projects. Railtrack has donated pounds 4m towards the Hungerford Bridge project, and Severn Trent Water will be donating money towards projects in Birmingham.