There are bound to be raised eyebrows at the news that the troubled St Peter's House in Forster Square is in the process of being sold to the South Asian arts company Kala Sangam for a figure understood to be less than £500,000. The greatest source of surprise will be the fact that this prestigious building, home of the failed Life Force faith project, has never come on to the open market.

The Millennium Commission, which took over the title of the building after Life Force collapsed five years ago, says that it wanted to find a project "of public benefit" and that Kala Sangam "emerged". In taking that decision it has gone against the building's designated retail use in the city-centre master plan.

The Commission has refused to answer any further questions about how the arts group came to achieve what is effectively preferential bidder status in a process which excluded any other bids.

Given the scale of the Cathedral's debt, surely it would have been better to at least test the open market in case a big enough deal was available to allow some money to go back to the Cathedral over and above that claimed by the Commission.

In the event, Kala Sangam might still have proved the best bidder, but the secrecy surrounding the deal can't help but give the impression that once it is signed the company will come out of it extremely well.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland is right to ask for the issue to be put to the Council's regeneration and economy committee. If nothing else, it would investigate if this is really the best that can be achieved for the people of Bradford.