The announcement last week that three Whitehall departments are to host a pavilion at the global property investment show MIPIM next month in France to show the UK is ‘open for business' – for the first time – is a reminder that we are now a nation, not of shopkeepers, but of salespeople.

With the prospect of no longer being protected in the single market or a customs union the UK must fall back on its own trading expertise and start a hard sell – and core to this is the success of its cities.