The response of central banks makes the situation worse. Fixated on the past, they tell us a valid reaction to companies exercising their market power is to send borrowing costs soaring with a succession of interest rate rises to deter the wage claims they wrongly blame for inflation.

This disparity between these groups is exaggerated by trends in home ownership. While much of the focus in the housing debate is on housebuilding and the difficulties faced by young people in the private rented sector, probably the biggest trend is baby boomers who have been able to pay off their mortgages. It’s not an exaggeration to say that UK manufacturing’s house is on fire, even if the superstructure is burning slowly. Yet the Bank looks likely to press ahead anyway, which leaves anyone looking for reasons to remain confident turning to Rishi Sunak.Rishi Sunak appears to be pushing hard for personal tax cuts, saying the halving of inflation is a big moment for the government, a turning point for the economy and an opportunity to cut the tax burden on middle-income families. In this scenario, governments seeking to borrow may not find as many lenders queueing on the finance ministry steps to buy bonds as they have for the past 40 years. Tory managers are understood to believe that if the status quo can be maintained and the warring factions inside the party held to a score draw, property will retain its status as a safe bet. In Britain, this argument presumes that the average worker, to prevent a fall in personal living standards, will be able to negotiate a pay deal that beats the Bank of England’s latest forecast for peak inflation later this year of 11%.

The answer would be to build pylons and all the other paraphernalia of net zero infrastructure somewhere else. There was a chance much of the infrastructure was heading north under ambitious and economically justifiable plans to level up the country. Commitments to build more homes, ones that developers want to fulfil in the south-east, might have have been executed in the Midlands and north, making use of underutilised infrastructure. If population growth had tilted northwards, then some of the huge upgrade needed in the UK’s electricity grid might have gone north too. Should he become prime minister, Keir Starmer will be undermined by Britain’s legacy of poor management, just as Rishi Sunak is now. We need to set aside two centuries’ worth of colonial-era habits and methods copied from the military handbook, subjecting workers to a culture of command and control. Business investment has sagged and large numbers of the workforce have decided they have had enough of the nine-to-five and either retired or returned to their homelands. Once the consumer prices index had jumped to 10.1% in July, there was no doubt in the minds of most City analysts that the Bank would increase the cost of borrowing at its next meeting, and continue raising it into next year. England’s water system hosts the last of the privatised monopolies. You can shop around for gas and electricity, telephone and broadband. Not water.

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There are several factors at play pushing prices higher next year. Disposable incomes are expected to recover and consumer confidence, badly damaged this month by the prospect of a war in the Middle East, will most likely be on an even keel in 2024. Surprises will be small-scale, at least in financial terms. There is speculation that a one-off energy subsidy for the low-paid will be included now there are forecasts of a rise in energy bills this winter. Gerard Woodhouse, a local Labour councillor who runs the L6 Community Centre in Everton, Liverpool, said the food bank and food union that the charity runs were opening six days a week rather than four due to increased demand, but at the same time had seen a reduction in donations in recent days because “people who used to donate now need help themselves”. After a post-Brexit-referendum slump, immigration has soared in recent years, but many of the incomers are Ukrainian or Hong Kong Chinese people and the length of their stay looks uncertain. So the UK can look forward to a dwindling number of workers supporting a growing number of retirees.