As if times weren’t challenging enough for City solicitors, a rumour doing the rounds at London’s City Hall set a few corporate fingers twitching towards their calculators. Apparently, Mayor Boris Johnson has come up with a splendid wheeze for funding the Crossrail east-west rail link – a £213-per-square-metre levy on office space in the City and Docklands. In the current economic climate, that would surely have been a coup de grace for the vast marble lobbies and in-house smoothie bars which are apparently essential for making life bearable at some big firms.

Unlike most rumours about City Hall, this one is true – it’ll apply only to new developments, however. Your smoothie bars are safe, for the time being.