For generations, most ambitious Scots believed that if they wanted to build a serious career or company, they would eventually need to move to Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen. Quietly, that assumption is breaking down.

It is not that Scotland's cities are becoming less important. Edinburgh remains one of the strongest-performing city economies in the UK, Glasgow continues to dominate much of Scotland's commercial and professional life, and Aberdeen retains expertise built during decades at the centre of the North Sea energy industry.

The recent push for greater powers and longer-term funding through city-region deals rests on a simple premise: strong cities create jobs, attract investment and generate economic activity that benefits the wider economy.

That reasoning is persuasive, but we are reaching the point where a new question needs to be asked. What if the most important measure of a successful city-region is no longer how many people it pulls into the city itself, but how far beyond its boundaries the benefits of that success can spread?

Manchester shows what Glasgow should really be asking for in devolution push

Historically, economic opportunity was closely tied to place. Ambitious professionals and entrepreneurs gravitated towards the cities because that was where the jobs, investment, expertise and connections were concentrated.

Geography mattered because the office mattered. That relationship has not disappeared, but it has weakened.

Hybrid working has proved far more durable than many expected. Most organisations still value face-to-face collaboration, and offices are not going away, yet the assumption that ambitious professionals must spend every weekday in a city-centre workplace no longer prevails.

Twenty years ago, a talented graduate from Hawick, Perth or........

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