London will be on time and on budget

The organisers of the London Olympics promised yesterday that the 2012 Games would be on time, on budget - and not another Wembley fiasco.

Paul Deighton, the chief executive of the London Olympics Organising Committee, told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee: "We are certainly confident at this stage that the sources of revenue are sufficient to leave us at the organising committee with revenues that will match our expected expenditure."

Deighton assured the MPs: "I don't think there has been an Olympics in history which has been late. I do not have any intention of breaking a record on that."

David Higgins, the chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, which is charged with building Games venues, said the Wembley Stadium saga had taught them the "absolute importance of planning".

After the Games, the showpiece stadium in Stratford, east London, must be used for athletics and community leisure. Promising that it would not be another white elephant, Higgins said: "It will be an asset. It will be built on public money.

"If we can get a football club in there to help mitigate the operating costs we will certainly welcome that." He added that the design of the stadium is still evolving.

Even though McAlpine leads a consortium to build the 80,000-seater stadium, which must reduce to a 25,000-seater venue after the Games, contingency plans are in place if talks break down.