What does the future hold for Scotland’s cities, post-pandemic? Reopening of social life should be the catalyst for fresh thinking and investment. The response to a new world of hybrid working, online commerce and much higher transport costs must be a reimagining of our cities. That need not cast aside some good ongoing work on smart future cities – but it would be a mistake not to recognise the world has changed.

Much office and retail space will need to be repurposed. Day-to-day, fewer people may travel in to city centres, and they will need to be incentivised to do that. Employers must make the office experience an attractive alternative to working from home; with social interaction, technology support, training and a comfortable environment. Others will come in to city centres less for shopping than for experiences such as cafes, dining and events. Yet, currently cities are not geared up for this. It may take a few years of transformation.

The challenges to this city repurposing are principally vision and money. Citizens are only now gradually coming to terms with how they want cities to relate to their work-life balance. It may take time for councils to fully grasp this and adapt previous planning. The upheaval in work patterns and travel has taken just two years, but planners must develop a vision for future decades. Who would have guessed that a time of installing new cycle lanes and pedestrian areas, combined with higher petrol prices, would actually see such strong demand for car ownership. Even if we could predict the longer-term future, progress towards that is not always in a straight line.

Adding to the problem for councils is finance – shops and offices generate revenue that is not easily recaptured if activity moves online or out of town. And, in the short term, some of the plans to redesign roads and restrict traffic may dampen city centre activity. Further in the future there is much to be gained by pedestrianisation and better air quality, as well as boosting communities in towns beyond the cities. But right now many cities will need to win back their audience. It will take events, investment and encouragement to get activity moving again. Right now, some city centres look in need of a tidy-up – sometimes more obvious to visitors than to the residents who see it every day. Tourism matters to Scotland and its cities need to look their best. City authorities should recognise the need for investment in city centres and resist the temptation to add new burdens to the businesses already there.

Councils have not been idle in reimagining their cities. In 2013, Glasgow beat 50 other UK cities to win funding from Innovate UK to use technology and data to improve life in the city. This brought work in areas; such as active travel, intelligent lighting and reduced energy and emissions. Glasgow’s smart canal, opening up parts of Glasgow North for regeneration, is perhaps the most notable success. But in other areas, the tangible benefits are harder for citizens to see. Open data that aims to empower communities tends to make less impact on people than how a city’s architecture and public spaces feel. The vision for Glasgow as a future city has been bold but perhaps over-emphasised data.

The pandemic with its remote working has brought in a pattern across many organisations – and not just in the public sector – of digital deflection. At the same time as work has been done to facilitate citizen action and support community groups, many citizens now find it harder to engage with public services, or complain. This loss of human touch seems to contrast with the potential for technology to give greater support. While the lockdown forced much of this new way of working, that work style must evolve into something that keeps good open communication between residents and the management of services.

Across Scotland, a collaboration of Scotland’s seven cities has aimed to identify common goals and collaboration opportunities. This programme has had significant investment, supported by the Scottish Government, to expand smart city capability and improve community engagement and integrated service delivery. But, again, much has focused on addressing city challenges via data-driven decision making. The pattern around the world of this approach - typically involving “top down” smart city programmes – has often failed to engage citizens as hoped.

Technology needs to be integrated with insights from human behaviour; the pandemic has changed lifestyles in ways that are not all yet well understood. Also, the pace of change has brought a digital divide, with not all sharing in empowerment through data. As Scotland’s seven-year city programme ends this year, a reassessment would be timely. This programme began before the pandemic and now it needs to recognise major changes in society and the way in which emerging inflation is likely to create food and fuel poverty.

Understanding how new ways in which people want to live should impact city design must involve a bigger role for citizens in shaping the future. Physical infrastructure and architecture are much of what people actually experience in cities. Academics now suggest that the blueprint for smart cities should involve a partnership of policymakers, universities, business and citizens. Each part has unique knowledge and potential for contribution that can help avoid policy mistakes. Indeed, the United Nations sustainable development goals suggest broader input is best. It can also allow each city to keep its authenticity rather than imposing more standardised top-down approaches. In an ideal world there should be no trade-off between long-term goals and short-term plans, but in reality compromise is inevitable. Achieving sustainable economic development will involve debate.

Part of the planning problem is that city authorities in the UK have less power vested in them than many European cities. A debate is needed on the extent to which the level of delegated responsibility within some Continental European cities might assist the broad-based transformation that is needed here, and recognise the specific characteristics of each city. A balance must be struck between sharing ideas across Scotland’s cities and creating unique tailored solutions.

Mega-cities often have diseconomies of scale and can be dysfunctional. But none of Scotland’s cities are anywhere near overheating. What our cities do offer are some efficiencies in terms of transport, schools and other key services. Scotland is also well endowed with universities in its biggest cities, heritage and significant infrastructure. There is much to gain from engaging now with all who use our cities, and ensuring they have a healthy future.

Colin McLean is managing director of SVM Asset Management