I have seen the future. It will be a bit like a game of sardines. My sources are not science-fiction films such as Brazil or Fifth Element, which portray life in far-off, populous centuries as lacking in elbowroom. My authorities are the serial entrepreneurs Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Simon Woodroffe and Martha Lane Fox. All three have launched businesses that aim to lift the yield on expensive property by cramming people into smaller spaces, or accommodating them for less time.

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Jonathan Guthrie talks to Martha Lane Fox and reports from a policy event at the UK’s annual enterprise festival

Sir Stelios’s offering is a no-frills business centre in Kensington. If you own a start-up in need of a smart address, you can book space there on a weekly basis over the internet. The lack of mod cons is reflected in low prices. You pay in advance. This saves Sir Stelios from chasing up payment from small business tenants. These, it pains me to report, can lack punctilio when it comes to writing rent cheques. Particularly if they are going bust.