Today is my fourteenth birthday. My alarm sounds at 9 am. No more rushing for me. The new dedicated cycle lane means I can cycle to school quickly and safely. No more boring bus or wading through rush-hour traffic! And now they’ve opened the local job hub, my mum has a workspace down there. She doesn't miss the commute, or the cost of diesel. The hub used to be the office of one of the world's biggest law firms. But they abandoned it a few years ago when the government hiked tax for big corporations. They also introduced a law that said that no bosses could earn more than ten times their lowest paid worker. Imagine that. No more billionaires! Power to the people, my gran says.

Anyway, my dad does get up earlier than us, but he's really happy to do that now he runs the local cafe. All the corporate coffee houses were sold to community businesses as part of the Great Community Reform Act. It gave a huge boost to local jobs. Now loads of people round here are running their own businesses. All the adults officially work four days a week which makes them happier and have more time for other stuff and not being so grouchy. After the government got all the big firms to pay their tax there seemed to be more money around. It paid for free public transport, insulating homes, free education and healthcare and capped rent and energy bills. That was a smart move as the price of gas has gone through the roof, what with the big wars between some gas-producing nations.

Today, my mum is working down the innovation hub, where she's experimenting with rewilding the local area. Our class is visiting and helping to change what was once our local highway into what the adults call a biodiversity park. Now that there's a tram system across the whole city most of the big highways were shut. The highway used to be a nightmare. It was the scariest thing for me. Six lanes to cross, and one of my mates and his mum were badly hurt there. Now we’ve taken all the concrete up and we are laying plants that will help with flood control in the local river. Last week we planted some trees on what used to be the centre of the road.