He told Building magazine at the Labour Party Conference, where he was attending a fringe event along with London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and former Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards, that the ODA had approximately £500 million of the funding in place but the credit crunch was making things very difficult for the builder Lend Lease to find private finding.

 

He admitted that the scheme would probably need the Government to bail them out.

 

Armitt told the magazine: "The reality is that the situation is changing by the day.

 

"There was a certain amount of finance available six months ago, less two months ago and the reality is there was probably even less last week.

 

"Getting any form of loan from the private sector at the moment is very difficult."

 

Armitt said they still hoped to sort out the situation by the end of the year and have funding in place for the 3,000-home project .

 

He said: "We are in discussions with Lend Lease and its banks, and we are in discussions with Government, and an RSL (Registered Social Landlord) is in daily negotiations with us."

 

To read the full article visit http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3123181&c=0.