altSIR STEVEN REDGRAVE (pictured), the first person signed up as a London 2012 ambassador, has urged the Government to sort out the budget for the Games on the day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a two-day visit to the Capital.

 

"I have found it frustrating and I will be very satisfied when we will get to a point where they say 'this is the budget, this is the money we have got to spend," said the five-time Olympic gold medallist.

"If you were building a house or an extension you would have a budget to spend.
 
"I think the British public would prefer that."
 
Redgrave, who joined the bid in 2003 even before it was officially rubber-stamped by the Government, made his comments as Denis Oswald, the head of the IOC's 2012 Coordination Commission, and Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director, flew into London to meet with officials from LOCOG and the Olympic Delivery Authority.
 
Sebastian Coe, the chairman of LOCOG, has again tried to dampen down media calls that they are some kind of crisis talks because the IOC are unhappy.
 
"The delegation will be with us for a two-day session assessing how we are developing our aim of bringing the 17 themes we had in our candidate file to realisation within the working environment of a living city," he said.

"We are on schedule in terms of preparation for the Games and the IOC have been complimentary on all fronts at what we are doing, but we cannot allow a vestige of complacency to enter our thinking."