If there’s one thing that most of us can probably agree on, it’s that people across Britain agree on very little. The political narrative of recent years has been one of an ever more fragmented electorate, and of a national political class increasingly unable to govern from the centre.

Unfortunately, for those who look back fondly to the days when government did more than just firefighting (and when Brexit was just a twinkle in the eyes of ardent Eurosceptics), there is little sign that the political and economic schisms evident in recent years will ease anytime soon.

Indeed, as a new Centre for Cities report shows, the coming decades — and the technological and demographic changes they will bring — could leave Britain even more