Long-Term Partnership Contracting in Practice: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London

This chapter examines Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the largest new park to be created in the UK for over a century. In the chapter, we study the way in which this high-profile park in London is managed via a long-term contract-based partnership and explore how the 2012 Olympic Games legacy has a bearing on management arrangements. Calling on interviews with stakeholders, we show how the governance structure is underpinned by a decentralised approach to parks management responsibilities. Our chapter contributes to a gap in knowledge around the “thin client model” and long-term partnership-based contracts which this Park adopts, which are distinct from the typical parks management arrangements around the world which are traditionally delivered by in-house public sector parks departments or with specific tasks contracted out to a private contractor.