It’s 8am. The sun is peeking out from behind the clouds, and you leave your front garden near the centre of Bournemouth New Town, a new town extension. You walk five minutes to the tram stop, passing rows of new, red-brick terraces and glistening white-rendered mansion blocks that paid for most of the new tram line. Arriving at the platform, you glance up at the screen showing a three-minute wait for the tram to central Bournemouth – great, you’ll make the meeting with time for a coffee.

The ride lasts 20 minutes; it always does. The year is 2035. House prices in the city have fallen in real terms due, in part, to the large new neighbourhood halfway through being built, and the city has attracted yet another deep-tech firm to locate there, enticed by a burgeoning workforce drawn to the beaches, high salaries, and cheaper homes.

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