Speaking at the Legacy Lives 2010 conference in East London, Jowell maintained that the operating principles of the London bid would carry through to benefit the wider Olympic world.

"Every host of the Olympic Games has its own idea of what it wants to achieve and how it wants the Games to be remembered," Jowell said.

"You have the spectacle of Beijing, the spirit and openness of Barcelona, the national pride of Vancouver.

"When it comes to the London, the 2012 Games have become synonymous with the idea of legacy.

"For the first time ever, legacy has been an absolutely fundamental part of deciding to bid for the Games and then planning the Games."

She added: "London 2012 has irreversibly altered what it means to host an Olympic Games.

"What does it mean for the Olympic Movement?

"Above all it means that national governments have a more important role to play than ever before, not only in relation to the government’s responsibility for staging the Games, but also in terms of legacy.

"Because it is only the resources of Governments and Government agencies can provide the scale and infrastructure that can match the ambitions of our bid.

"The growing role of host Governments means that we can no longer afford for the knowledge transfer to operate simply on an organising committee-to- organising committee basis.

"We can't afford to limit it to the more traditional aspects such as building, security, accreditation and ticketing.

"Instead, hosts and future host Governments should have access to support in areas such as planning for legacy, both hard and soft, making the transition from Government guarantees to detailed delivery plans, and ensuring that the investment in the Olympic Games brings benefit to the whole of the country.

"As an example, the London 2012 construction and delivery budget has had sufficient contingency that it provided the stability that has so far been a part of the bedrock of our success.

"We have allowed the Olympic Delivery Authority to concentrate on the job in hand notwithstanding the impact of the recession and the related uncertainty about private sector funding.

"These are the kind of lessons that must stay within the Olympic Movement, and that’s why we’ve taken steps to ensure their transfer.

"Last year I signed a Government-to-Government guarantee with Brazil, the first of its kind, to facilitate the sharing of expertise between the two countries.

"I think it’s very important for the more old fashioned parts of the Olympic Movement to shed any allergy that it might have to Government partnership by taking ownership of this wider knowledge-sharing agenda.

"If we can build that, then London 2012 will not only have left a powerful legacy in East London, but it will also have left a lasting legacy for the Olympic Movement."

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