Legal battle over West Ham stadium has cost taxpayers £4m

The bitter legal row between West Ham and their stadium landlords has cost taxpayers £4 million, it emerged yesterday.

The London Legacy Development Corporation confirmed the bill comes as overall costs continue to spiral over a war of words with the club over commercial activity.

The London Stadium owners have already claimed they are now spending £70,000 extra per game because of troublemaking fans.

Gerry Murphy, deputy chief executive of the LLDC, told the London Assembly: “Over the last three years, our legal costs in relation to West Ham, by the end of this year, will be about £4million.”

West Ham have been in dispute with the stadium owners since they moved into the former Olympic Stadium in 2016. Issues ranged from capacity and stewarding to the colour of the carpet which surrounds the pitch.

Although the club pay an indexlinked annual rent of £2.5million as tenants, the venue is still set to lose £140million over the next 10 years.

Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of the LLDC, recently denied West Ham’s “extremely serious and damaging” allegations that his organisation had given misleading information about their financial agreement. In an open letter, Sir Peter said costs had gone up since estimates last season that the LLDC was losing £2million a year as a result of the deal which allows West Ham use the ground.

“Costs have increased, not least because the behaviour of a small minority of West Ham fans at the end of last season means we now spend more on security,” he wrote. “Each match so far this season costs an average of around £270,000.”