One of the things about living and working in a capital city is that it is drenched in history, culture and new ideas. If you spend your professional life in construction and in a  major urban centre, that means seeing both futuristic design and technology coming to life but also working around outstanding examples of the output of our forebears – the investors, developers, contractors and project teams who did so much to shape our environment.

HG Wells’ The Time Machine is primarily set in London and one of the enduring pleasures of the story is a play on the idiom that “time flies”. The main character loses consciousness and eventually reaches the year 802,701. The story reflects our fascination with the passage of time, especially its fleeting nature, speeding by before we can properly take stock.

I have now spent over 10 years working in London for Morgan Sindall Construction. It is astonishing to me how quickly that time has passed, but I also know that the industry has changed significantly for the better in that period.