In the week that parliament passed the vote to trigger Article 50, the UK government descended in force on one of the world's largest property and regeneration events to show that the UK ‘is open for business'.

In the sunshine of the Riviera resort of Cannes a fortnight ago, the Government – for the first time through the Department for International Trade, the Homes and Communities Agency and the Department for Communities and Local Government – hired a tented pavilion at MIPIM which bore the union jack and the catchline ‘Welcome to a land alive with opportunity'. Flanked by pavilions from the Midlands, Manchester, and London, with other UK cities exhibiting elsewhere at Cannes's vast Palais, the Government's tent hosted a succession of ministerial and other speakers promoting the line that the UK is ‘open for business'.