London 2012 Olympics: Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt confident that Olympics will come under budget You can never say never, because you don't know what's round the corner. But I have always had the view that the most difficult thing that I could imagine having to do in this job would be asking George Osborne [the Chancellor of the Exchequer] for more money for the Olympics given the cuts that are happening across the rest of Government. Hunt's confidence reflects the Government's view that, notwithstanding a significant change in the security threat, all the major calls on contingency have been made. During the previous quarter an additional £281 million was allocated for security, doubling the anticipated budget to cover an embarrassing underestimate over the number of guards that will be required to protect venues. Military personnel will help fill that gap. But with venues largely complete in the Olympic Park, Government attention has turned to making the most of the international spotlight that will focus on London this summer. As the cabinet minister responsible for delivering the Olympics, Hunt has taken a more visible role in the project in recent months, banging the drum for the promotional possibilities the Games present. He also claimed that London was on course to become the first Games to secure viable uses for all its new venues. Apart from the Olympic Stadium and the media centre, the legacy use of six other venues in the Park has already been secured, an achievement Hunt said was setting a new benchmark for host cities. Within our sights is the possibility of being the first Olympic host to secure legacy uses for all the venues before the Games happens. If we do that we will be doing a huge favour to the Olympic movement because, once and for all, we will show its possible to lift this curse of disused stadiums with moss growing and cobwebs multiplying. In terms of encouraging other people to bid for Games in the future we would show it doesn't have to be that way. Hunt said he is confident that the public would remain committed even when the disruption brought by the arrival of the IOC circus is being felt. Exploiting the opportunity of the Games is Hunt's current focus. He is travelling to 13 cities overseas - last week it was Los Angeles - to promote the sporting and cultural assets that will be on display. Talking up a £9.3 billion investment in the Games is a bold policy given the disastrous economic climate. Last week, by way of contrast, the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, cancelled Rome's bid for the 2020 Games because of the financial turmoil facing his country and the Eurozone. But Hunt insists that the timing of London's Olympics represents a huge opportunity. If you look at the Olympics as six weeks of frivolous partying and fun TV then we certainly can't afford it. But if you look at the regeneration of a part of London that would never have been touched, if you look at the transformation of the way young people look at sport, if you look at it as a moment that we bang the drum for British business and British tourism, then you have to say that it is incredibly good value for money. All countries have to decide what they can afford, but for me it was an incredible stroke of luck to win the Games in 2005. For me there couldn't be a better moment when as a country we are doing something better calculated to help restore confidence in what we can do. While Hunt bangs the drum overseas, there are domestic concerns that will not go away, including ticketing and the sporting legacy that was at the heart of London's promise to the IOC. He defends the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games's ticketing arrangements, which have been criticised by, among others, Boris Johnson for a lack of transparency, reserving his criticism for Ticketmaster, whose systems have proved woefully inadequate. If there is a criticism it is the fact that the IT did not work as smoothly as Locog hoped. They contracted with Ticketmaster, which is the biggest and the best in the world, and it didn't go according to plan. On the sporting legacy of the Games Hunt is at his least bullish, reflecting the expectation within government and beyond that Coe's grand vision of an Olympics that transforms attitudes to sport and boosts participation will be missed. After five years of failure and falling participation figures the Government recently refocused Sport England's targets on working with schools, a position that runs contrary to the Coalition's decision to axe £160 million of ring-fenced funding for school sport in its first few months in power. Hunt will not admit the contradiction, but says low expectations over participation are justified. I think we have done the most we possibly could to give a really good shot at using the inspiration the biggest sporting event in the world to fire up more people to play more sport. But I don't underestimate the challenge of getting young people out to play sport and be active.