Public authorities this week refused to publish details of a deal that could see a private company led by a former government adviser on the Olympics bid handed several million pounds in public cash to help build homes for athletes attending the 2012 Olympics in London.

The London Development Agency issued an almost completely censored version of the agreement, following a request from BD for disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

Details on four of the seven pages of the agreement between the LDA and Stratford City Developments, led by former Cabe chairman Stuart Lipton, were completely redacted. Other details revealed simply that changes to plans may be subject to local authority approval and a plan to help fund a transport infrastructure.

The deal caused concern among senior civil servants and was signed while Lipton was chairman of Cabe and during the design watchdog’s analysis of the Olympic plans. Lipton denied any conflict of interest and declared his role in a register of interests.

The LDA said the disclosure of the information would prejudice the commercial interests of third parties and this outweighed the public interest. The publication of the heavily censored document followed an appeal by BD after an earlier refusal to publish details.