August 2010

Plans unveiled for new parks, trees and green open spaces in the Olympic Park

Plans for thousands of new trees, new parks, play areas and open spaces to support the new homes being delivered in the Athletes’ Village site were unveiled by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) today.

The announcement comes as the first stage of landscaping work is now underway in the Village site with the creation of an extensive wetlands park.

The Athletes’ Village, which lies adjacent to the Olympic Park, will accommodate athletes and officials during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. After the Games the Village will deliver the legacy of 2,818 new homes for east London, of which 1,379 will be affordable, owned and managed by Triathlon Homes.

Together with the new homes being built, the landscaping and public realm project in the Village site will create 10 hectares of new parklands, wetlands, and open space featuring more than 2,000 new trees and over 100,000 wetland and wild flower plants.

BoE Keeps Interest Rates at 0.5%

The Bank of England voted to leave monetary policy unchanged on Thursday with interest rates at the historic low of 0.5 per cent and £200bn of newly created money pumped into the economy to boost the recovery.

At its crunch August meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee’s considered verdict on June’s emergency Budget is that it will not undermine the recovery sufficiently to warrant taking offsetting action.

It has also judged that inflation is not enough of a concern to begin to raise interest rates, even though prices in June were 3.2 per cent higher than a year earlier and inflation has been at least 1 percentage point above the Bank’s 2 per cent target throughout 2010.