Being at the centre of the #repocalypse, as my 12-year-old son has christened our current travails, has certainly given me the opportunity to speak to and hear from a wider selection of stakeholders across the industry than in my previous 26 years combined.

The retail industry, for so long taken for granted, is front-page news and rarely off the airwaves. People from the heart of government downwards (or should it be upwards?) recognise the problem and are desperate for answers.

Whilst the handing out of the government’s Future High Street Fund is going to leave a lot of local communities disappointed – over 300 applied – the process has provided a focus for stakeholders to come together to start to think about what they want their places to be in future, as we migrate away from the retail mono-cultures that we created in our town centres in the post-war period.