London 2012 Olympics: Charities who lost funding to pay for the Games 'won't see their money for another decade' Channel 4"s Dispatches programme will tomorrow (Mon) show how ministers originally pledged the cash would be returned to charities at the close of this year's games In 2007 the Government diverted £675 million of lottery revenues to help pay for the Olympics, around £425 million of which should have been distributed by the Big Lottery Fund. In June that year, following criticism of the arrangement, the then Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell, told the House of Commons that the Government had agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mayor of London, designed in part to reimburse the Big Lottery Fund for lost revenues, by using the proceeds from selling Olympics assets. At the time she said this would: "Give lottery distributors real confidence that the additional funding necessary for a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games will be re-paid - providing them and the whole country with a further 2012 dividend." The charities said their understanding was that the cash would returned shortly after the Games came to an end. But in response to a Parliamentary Question the Government said the money will not be available for repayment for at least another decade. John Penrose MP, the Olympics minister, stated: "The development of the Olympic park is a long-term programme, with land sales due to take place over a period of 25 years. Given the timescale of the development programme and its dependence on market performance, we cannot be certain about the timing, but the current estimate from the Olympic Park Legacy Company is that the distributors should start to receive payments in the mid-2020s. The Department for Culture and Media said it was always the case that the repayments would depend on the money raised by the long-term development of the Olympic Park. A DCMS spokesman said: "We have been clear right from the outset that the payments can only be achieved over the longer term, given the 25 year timescale of the Olympic Park development programme and its dependence on market performance." Dispatches: Cashing in on the Games, is on Channel 4, on Monday, July 2, at 8pm.