The massively wealthy Wellcome Trust charity has suggested it may offer £1 billion to the government to buy the Olympic Park after the 2012 London Olympics.
The trust was originally founded around biomedical research, but has since branched out with a large property portfolio said to be worth around £14 billion.
If successful, the trust would have to stay in line with the existing plans for the site such as 11,000 new affordable homes and the various plans surrounding the Olympic Stadium. It would however own the freehold on the land which in itself could be a substantial investment.
Originally the trust wanted to buy the Olympic Village part of the site and has made a more formal bid for this, but after considering their options the board members decided to look further afield at buying the entire site.
A £1bn investment would be quite welcome for the government as it would wipe out the £675 million borrowed from the National Lottery and go some way to paying back the debt of buying the land. Whether the trust does eventually put in a formal bid remains to be seen.
If you happen to have a billion or two in your bank account, the process would go to formal bids so that other interested parties could put in their plans to takeover the site.
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