The equipment hire firm’s ‘2045: Constructing the Future’ report was launched yesterday to coincide with the date Marty McFly and Dr Emmett Brown time-travelled to in the ‘80s blockbuster movie, Back to the Future II.

The report takes a look at what the UK might look like in another 30 years, covering areas such as building design, transport, technology and health and safety.

“While we’re not all flying around in cars, there are a number of things, such as the use of drones, video conferencing and some of the physical structures that were portrayed very accurately in the movie,” said Futurologist Ian Pearson, who developed the report.

“The acceleration of new technology has and will continue to be the biggest driver for change. As we look forward another 30 years we can expect to see a very different but exciting world,” added Pearson.

“Augmented reality will play a major role in the aesthetics of a building. It’s likely that many buildings will actually be very plain, instead using AR to create visually appealing environments for those that visit,” said Pearson.

Heavily populated cities such as London are likely to change the most, according to the report, with space travel and development of new cities within cities some of the major changes.

“The use of super-strong carbon-based materials will enable us to build incredibly tall structures, some even up to 30km high. This will make space travel more convenient and for major transport hubs like London, going into space will be a regular occurrence in 2045,” added Pearson.

“A few of these structures may be so large that their capacity enables them to function as small cities in their own right, with all the usual city functions mixed within the same building,” he concluded.

Contributions from SCN readers to our “And finally” section are welcome – they should be sent to: newsdesk@scottishnews.com