We could we suppose, have some vast army of people - call them GOSPLAN just for fun - who then tell us all what to do, in detail, when something out there changes. Or, well, we could just leave things be perhaps?

Meta, the owner of Facebook, has paid £149 million to surrender lease on a London office block having not moved in any staff two years after signing the deal.

Oh well, made a mistake, loses money and there we are.

Britain’s return to the office has stalled this year, with occupancy levels averaging about 30 per cent, according to data from Remit Consulting — about half the levels before the pandemic.

Given the record shortage of lab space in the UK, British Land is unlikely to have trouble finding a life sciences tenant. Analysts at BNP Paribas Exane estimate that the landlord may even be able to achieve 50 per cent more rent than it was due under the lease to Meta.

Asset unwanted in its current form is to be transformed into a more valuable asset. The very definition of increasing wealth - moving economic assets from lower to higher valued uses.

Seems like a system that works. No bureaucratic direction or plan, just prices coordinating behaviour.

As we say, it’s a system that seems to work. Possibly we could even use it elsewhere as well. Say, that shocking oversupply of high street shops that could be turned into more valuable housing? Or those vast expanses of Green Belt that could be turned into more valuable housing?

After all, we have just proven that the free market does move property to higher value uses, haven’t we.