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Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell wants everyone to know there will be "no white elephants" when it comes to the legacy of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that Jowell defended London 2012’s escalating costs by saying she was confident that the final price would not rise beyond the 9.3 billion pounds announced last week. She said the government’s original 2.375 billion estimate was merely a "funding pitch".

She said Britons would be satisfied that the Games were value for money and the raid on lottery cash for "good causes" was justified.

The newspaper reports that on Saturday it was revealed Jowell failed to include 1.1 billion of taxpayers’ money spent on buying land in east London for the Olympic Park. The money is being spent by the London Development Agency which said the money was an "investment rather than a cost" because the land would be sold at a profit after the Games end.

Jowell said security would cost an estimated 600 million pounds. The figure will be kept under review because "you can’t put a firm figure on security five years away". According to the newspaper senior policemen believe the security bill will rise.

Jowell said "the costs will go up and down. There is a daily process of cost control, cost review. Any contract will operate within the margin of saving a bit of money if there is good weather, or conversely being slowed down by the weather being very bad. They may discover something unexpected that has to be dealt with. But there is a contingency to do that. These costs have been crawled over now".

She said the 80,000-seat Olympic stadium will be a "living stadium" able to convert to 20,000-25,000 seats for "community sport, lower league football and athletics. That’s planning legacy. No white elephants, no repeat of the Telstra stadium in Sydney or the Athens stadium or indeed the stadium in Barcelona where it took years to find a tenant".

Sports Minister Richard Caborn also defended the London 2012 escalating costs and insisted Britain will reap incalculable benefits out of hosting the Games.

He told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek, "you are looking at benefits to sport and to people’s health in terms of choice and regeneration, and in terms of the development of tourism. Yes, the costs are here, but the benefits are immense off that balance sheet to the nation".

After visiting recent Olympic Games venues, including Sydney and Barcelona, Caborn said he believes London is still ahead of schedule. He said, "I spoke to people in Sydney and Barcelona and they said to us, whatever you do in the first two years after you win the bid will determine the relative success of the Games itself. We are determined to get this budget right. We have done more in the last 18 months than any city has ever done who has produced the Olympics before.

"I am determined that if conditions remain the same, we will come well within this budget", he added.