As the Prime Minister pushed back the next stage of the COVID roadmap earlier this week, he inadvertently created a further delay – to the much-lauded, mythical epoch of ‘post-COVID'.

It seems every policy and plan hangs somewhere in a utopian future where we can all return to a world without face masks and elbow bumps, where we can gather en masse, have gainful employment and where town centres have a bold new purpose that doesn't revolve around retail and office space.