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RIBA, for instance, has long urged its members to avoid cutting fees! Perhaps in the light of the Preston Bus Station deal, we need to now see a construction industry body equally advising their entrepreneurs not to seduce for business. People like me will ask: where’s the waived money coming from; or from what trees have grown it? And can it be spread around a bit more evenly without ruining the built environment for starters! I’d be very surprised if there’s a clandestine type of s103 planning obligation expecting the demolition fee to be waived, in which case it would be the council seducing the developer, not the other way round!

A better charitable endeavour (equally veritable seduction) would be for the developer to help pay for the refurbishment or repairs in return for encouraging proper or genuine development and/or redevelopment opportunities elsewhere in the city, i.e. as a more forgiving collusion. Perhaps like a kind of Section 106 Agreement in reverse, if it can’t genuinely occur the other way round, the way it should.