The £900million rise in the cost of the Olympics admitted by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is just the tip of the iceberg. The original £2.375bn budget to build the Olympic facilities in Stratford, East London, has now risen to £3.3bn. Insiders think an £8bn bill is now realistic and a £10bn bill far from alarmist. On top of the £3.3bn cost of building the facilities you have to add the spiralling security costs of staging the games in London, where costs have risen since the July bomb attacks last year. The original budget did not include a bill for VAT costs on the construction, which the Treasury now expects the Olympic Delivery Authority to pay. That bill will be at least £250m - taking the total costs to £8.25bn. Others say the VAT bill could be up to £1bn - raising the total above £9bn. The £2.375 billion public funding package included £1.5 billion from National Lottery, £625 million from London council taxpayers and £250 million from the Mayor's London Development Agency. Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone have both ruled out council tax rises to fund the shortfall. But lottery good causes are likely to be squeezed further. One other option would be for the Treasury to give up the 12p it takes from the sale of every lottery ticket.