2.2 Following termination of Legacy's preferred bidder status, English Partnerships decided to test the appetite of the market through contacts with potential bidders, rather than immediately start another open competition. Such limited marketing, as in private treaty sales, was permitted by Treasury guidance8 when advisers recommended that it would be more advantageous than open competition. Jones Lang LaSalle, English Partnerships' property advisers, made such a recommendation on this occasion on the basis that another open competition may not have been productive, and may have deterred major players.
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8 HM Treasury DAO letter (Gen) 11/96, which was subsumed into Government Accounting rules extant at the time.