The body set up to deliver the London Olympics in 2012 promised on Wednesday that despite admitted cost over-runs on the project it would not need to call on government resources any more.

David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, offered the UK government that in return for a £5bn ($9.5bn, €7.4bn) funding package, the budget would not overrun even though the games were almost six years away. “The costs are not going to go up on an exponential basis,” he told a regeneration conference in London.