Scratch a modern millionaire and underneath you will probably find a property developer. Since 1954 the boom in commercial property development has spawned oblong office blocks by the thousands and new fortunes by the bank load. To amass their private fortunes, the property tycoons must enlist the willing co-operation of local government councillors - some of the hardest-working, unpaid public servants in modern Britain. For it is in the power of local authorities to grant, or to withhold, the necessary public permission to speculate on making a private fortune.