Olympics: Aquatic Centre Budget is Unrealistic, Warns Architect

The row over London's aquatic centre for the 2012 Olympics intensified yesterday when the architects insisted the project would cost £41m more than the sum promised by Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary and Olympics minister.

A source close to the project to construct a 20,000-seat arena, with two 50-metre swimming pools and a separate 25m diving pool, said the final budget for the complex was likely to be £116m.

Last week Jowell said she had sent the project "back to the drawing board" to bring down costs to £75m, but a spokeswoman for the award-winning architect Zaha Hadid has told today's edition of Building Design magazine that "the total project costs will be significantly more".

"This figure [£75m] always referred to the base construction costs only," the spokeswoman told the magazine. "The specifications of the building and the design, along with the estimated construction cost of the building, have not changed since Zaha Hadid Architects won the original competition."

She said inflation costs, professional fees and other contingencies would also need to be considered in calculating the total cost.

The architects' comments contrast sharply with the remarks Jowell made at the Thames Gateway Forum, when she indicated that the government would be ruthless in driving down any potential overspending.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment. "We will not get into a running commentary and detailed discussions on the cost of individual projects," he said. "We will deliver what we said in the candidate file presented to the International Olympic Committee."