2.24 When Ministers appointed Meridian Delta Ltd as preferred bidder in December 2001 they recognised that the proposal was less mature and with less supporting documentation than was preferable, which added to the risk of not being able to agree an acceptable deal. Such situations are not uncommon in commercial deals when bidders are reluctant to invest substantial sums in working up detailed proposals before they are confident that they will win the competition and recover their costs. Recognising the risks the Dome Sale Unit and English Partnerships set themselves a prime negotiating objective to preserve the £230 million net present value of the deal to the taxpayer. This objective was achieved and the conditional deal was signed in May 2002. The negotiations between English Partnerships and Meridian Delta Ltd for such a large and multi-faceted development programme were inevitably highly complex. Our examination of the records of these negotiations revealed a relatively even process of "give and take" on deal terms and values, without evident net drift against the public sector.