To survive, shops in Britain will have to move to where the commuters are now | Gavin Chait

The relationship between high streets and workers is up for renegotiation. Let's not waste this moment

A community is a community because of its people, and some of those people are only present because of proximity or force of habit. That twice-daily dam-burst of commuters back and forth between home and work supports the architecture of our economy, with its clusters of offices rising above jostling streets lined with restaurants, cafes and retailers.

In its current form, a sufficient mass of people must keep moving to prevent it seizing up. How many can stay home before some of it becomes unsustainable?

Related: Why the home-working boom could tumble London's skyscrapers

Related: Growing number of Britons working from home, says ONS

Gavin Chait is an open-data scientist and development economist at Whythawk