Opportunities and challenges lie ahead

The Games and Paralympic Games will present opportunities to promote London on a worldwide stage. London will be the centre of attention for the world's media and it will become the world's number one tourist destination. The City will want to be seen as the world's top location for business competitiveness.

There will be opportunities for banks to finance buildings and enterprises, for construction companies to develop infrastructure and for suppliers to grow their businesses. Firms can get people who are outside the labour market into training and into work. The Games will be a chance to make lasting improvements to London's transport system. Hosting the world will be a privilege. The Olympics celebrate excellence in sport, the arts and education, and foster cultural understanding on an international scale.

The Games were founded because of worries about the malaise of youth and they demonstrate a desire to invest in young people and their future. The young people of London will have a chance to share in the idealism of the Olympic dream.

But the opportunities will have to be created, and the goal of making the Olympic engine work for east London will be very challenging indeed. The Olympic Games will be the world's biggest event. Will London's public transport system be able to get everyone where they want to go, on time every day for 60 days? How many Londoners will really feel included, let alone people living in Essex and other parts of the country? How inclusive will the Games be for older people and other community groups? How much care will be taken over helping local firms bid for contracts and helping local people improve their skills? What are the prospects for affordable housing with rocketing property prices? How much support will communities get as growth moves eastwards? What will the relationship be between costs and long-term value for money?

One thing is clear: the Olympic Games will mean more than a sporting spectacle and the regeneration of the built environment. The social regeneration of whole communities is at stake.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown MP, has pointed to the value of ‘corporate social responsibility' in going beyond philanthropy to achieve measurable outcomes, not just inputs. A vital opportunity for the local community is poverty reduction. But for that goal to be realised, the corporations, planners and organisers behind the

Olympics will need to engage with local people and build positive relationships so that they do not feel imposed upon but are listened to and respected.

The Games provide an opportunity, above all, for London to hand on the Olympic torch to the next city wherever it might be in the world, with greater understanding of how the needs of local communities can be met.

The Olympic Games must not only be about sport, medals, sponsorship and television, but a bigger opportunity for the world.

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