Latest figures show Hackney still had fewer workers on the Olympic development than the four other host boroughs

Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott has hit out at London 2012 bosses once again after the latest figures showed Hackney still had fewer workers on the Olympic development than the four other host boroughs this year.

Targets to employ 15 per cent of the workforce from the host boroughs have been met with almost a quarter of employees on both the Olympic Park and Olympic Village coming from Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

But just two per cent of the workforce comes from Hackney - compared to six per cent from Waltham Forest and ten per cent from Newham.

Ms Abbott told the Gazette that Hackney had been “cruelly let down” on the promise of jobs.

“The continuing failure of the ODA to employ local workers from Hackney to work at the Olympic Park is a betrayal of the people of the East End,” she said.

“This is the biggest construction project in London for a generation. Local people are very disappointed that so few jobs have materialised.

“We all believed the promises of the jobs it would bring. Hackney has been cruelly let down.”

The annual figures released by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) this week show 227 people of the total 2867 strong Olympic workforce came from Hackney.

Tower Hamlets had 301 employees on the development, Greenwich had 371 and Newham had 1241.

ODA chairman John Armitt said: “The ‘big build’ of the Olympic Park and Village is on track and within budget and that is testament to the commitment and skill of the contractors and workforce. In a challenging period for the construction industry our contractors are employing 12,000 people and meeting our targets to take on local people and apprentices. Thousands of jobs up and down the country have also been created and protected in the supply chains delivering 2012 work.”