Mr Justice Peel :
1.By my judgment in substantive financial remedy proceedings, I determined that W should, on a needs based award, exit the marriage with a total of £7.45m.2.H makes an application for costs assessed in the sum of £310,000. W initially proposed to H that there be no order as to costs. H rejected that proposal, and she now seeks no order as to costs save that H should pay her costs of two interlocutory hearings together with her costs incurred in addressing the agreement arguments. The sum sought by W is £264,010.3.The total costs are about £1.6m (W £917,000 and H £709,000). The difference is mainly accounted for by H not being liable to VAT. Of these sums, H paid about £360,000 towards W’s costs up to June 2021. 4.The starting point for costs in financial remedy proceedings is that each party should bear their own costs. By FPR 2010 28.3(6) the court may depart from the starting point and make a costs order against one, or other, or both parties. Factors to be taken into account are listed at 28.3(7) and include:“(b) any open offer to settle made by a party;(c) whether it was reasonable for a party to raise, pursue or contest a particular allegation or issue;(d) the manner in which a party has pursued or responded to the application or a particular allegation or issue;(e) any other aspect of a party's conduct in relation to proceedings which the court considers relevant; and(f) the financial effect on the parties of any costs order.”5.Rule 4.4 of Practice Direction 28A states that: “The court will take a broad view of conduct for the purposes of this rule and will generally conclude that to refuse openly to negotiate reasonably and responsibly will amount to conduct in respect of which the court will consider making an order for costs. This includes in a ‘needs’ case where the applicant litigates unreasonably resulting in the costs incurred by each party becoming disproportionate to the award made by the court”.6.The two interlocutory applications in respect of which W seeks her costs do not fall within the category of cases to which the no order principle applies. There is a “clean sheet” for such applications. 7.In