“Hej!” says a grinning Dane from the first page of the new Ikea catalogue. And then you are in: the Ektorp Bromma, the Besta Jagra, the Gungult and hundreds of other lines of the cheap furniture that has engendered giggles, fist fights and countless traffic jams in the 20 years since the Swedish retailer arrived in Britain.

In person, Peter Hogsted also smiles a lot but the head of Ikea in the UK and central Europe can get upset: just mention the UK’s planning system. “It’s in­sane,” he groans.