The Cairn
build-lease
A forty-year lease granted in exchange for building the volume it covers — the bargain that bought the Cairn its rings.
In full
The instrument is civil administration at its plainest: build the steel, hold it for forty years. It was the only steel on offer, and it worked — the Cairn admitted everyone it promised to admit and housed them in rings it could not otherwise have paid for. In the wrong mouth it is the reason everything costs what it costs, because the leases came with first call on berth priority and environmental allocation, and the bill for that arrives four years on.
Key facts
- Forty years, in exchange for building the volume covered.
- Sold to nine private houses to buy steel the station had no other way to buy.
- Carries first call on berth priority and environmental allocation.
- Institutional language that escaped into ordinary complaint.