Taxpayers face £11m Dome bill

Taxpayers will be handed an £11.1million bill for the empty Millennium Dome at the end of the year, the Government said today.

Dome Minister Lord Falconer confirmed that the tourist attraction will leave the taxpayer with the hefty bill 12 months after it closed.

The figure takes account of maintenance and decommissioning since the closure. Last week it emerged that total expenditure on the Dome will be around £795million.

In a written reply, the minister said: "Costs after 31 December 2001 will depend largely on a number of factors related to the outcome of the ongoing sale process. English Partnerships will recover any sale process, decommissioning, maintenance and associated costs from eventual sale proceeds."

English Partnerships, the Government quango which owns the Dome, hopes to recoup the money with the sale of part or all of the Dome site. But since the failed bid by Bourne Legacy, which was thrown out in February, the Government has been searching for a fresh buyer.

Lord Falconer, Transport Department Minister and the Dome's sole shareholder, said English Partnerships had spent £2.2million on the sale between 15 February - when Bourne Legacy's bid fell through - and the end of June.

English Partnerships is expected to spend a further £6 million by the end of December "for fees and costs associated with the decommissioning of the Dome", plus an average of around £240,000 a month for maintenance and management.

The new figures triggered fresh condemnation from the Tories. Theresa May, shadow secretary of state for transport, local government and the regions, said: "The Dome has been propped up by taxpayers' money.

Now Lord Falconer has admitted that it is eating up yet more public cash. Under Labour the Dome became a laughing stock, but the amount of taxpayers' money being thrown at it has long since ceased to be a joke."

English Partnerships hopes to recoup some of the money spent on the Dome by hiring out the empty building for public and private events. Eight teams of contractors are finishing a decommissioning project - flattening the floor.