At long last we might be seeing the first positive action in the London wholesale markets saga. The show of hands at New Covent Garden not only represents a tentative commitment to study a joint venture with Nick Saphir, but also illustrates a desire to see the future decided, one way or another, once and for all.

People will ask why Nick Saphir wants to get involved at all. The tenants at Nine Elms have no recent history of unity and most have shown only intermittent interest in their own role in securing a future for the market as a whole.

Quite simply though, Saphir believes in the recommendations of his initial report and is more frustrated than anyone at the prevarication and posturing that has prevented London’s markets from moving forward. There is apparently a property developer interested in purchasing the market, but the situation appears to be set up nicely for a handover to the Corporation of London.

Saphir believes that - in the 21st century - tenants should have a role in the running of their markets, and that this is not fundamental to the beliefs of the Corporation as a landlord.

To make financial commitments to a project that involves taking on such a weighty organisation as the Corporation of London has to be seen as a risk.

But now is the time to do it. The government - whichever party is elected on May 5 - is almost certainly going to make decisions on the disposal of the market early in the next parliament. There may be a plan at Defra, but nothing has yet been set in stone.

You often hear people say, if you don’t vote in an election you can’t complain when things don’t turn out to your liking. Likewise, tenants owe it to themselves to not just listen to Saphir but to analyse the alternatives properly. Their long-term futures are on the line.