We used to envy New York, the city that never slept, while most things in the UK shut at 11pm and everything was shut by 2am – and you had to walk home. 

But now the tubes in London run 24 hours a day every Friday and Saturday, there are extended opening hours everywhere – and even my vet’s surgery is open 24/7, which is good news for my flea-bitten mog. 

London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, appointed the redoubtable Amy Lamé as his Night Czar back in 2016, and she has been doing a great job ever since then supporting the cause and campaigning to keep things open. What a great choice he made – and what a great job she has!

A night economy is important for a number of reasons. First, it makes absolutely no sense that when most of us work during the day, the shops and support facilities are open, and we don’t work in the evening when most of them are closed. That’s just one more reason for the crisis on the high street. People need to shop – and enjoy shopping – when it suits them. It’s a recreation and an experience. Otherwise they will buy from Amazon while at their desks.

Then there is the matter of needing to “sweat our assets”. The UK population grew by an incredible 5 million people between 2005 and 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics.