Newham discusses London Stadium ownership in secret

Newham council is tonight discussing their continued part ownership of the London Stadium. The Newham cabinet led by West Ham fan Sir Robin Wales is holding the cabinet meeting at Newham townhall this evening which started at 5 pm.

On a packed agenda is item No.17 to discuss Newham Legacy Investments which owns 35% of E20 stadium in return for a £40m investment loaned to them by Newham council.  The two-page secret report reveals only that it is an update on NLI and possible options going forward. The details are classified as restricted and are not available to the public as part of a bumper 1,215-page meeting pack. The public is also excluded from that part of the meeting.

Newham finds themselves between a rock and a hard place, they have seen no repayments of the £40m they loaned the Investment vehicle and face the situation where they could be required to contribute more taxpayers money to cover ongoing stadium operating losses if they don’t want to forfeit their share of the London Stadium.

Majority stadium owners London Legacy Development Corporation claim they will need to inject a further £21.1m of working capital into the stadium and therefore Newham, in theory, could be asked to contribute 35% of that sum which is around £7.3m.