I don’t know about you, but this quote has a familiar ring about it.

It was pretty much a daily saying in the Lidstone household. Whilst I didn’t grow up in a paper bag in a septic tank (‘luxury’ I hear you cry) we Lidstones never really had too much cash to splash around.

In recent years, standards of living and the accessibility of mod cons have meant that such phrases were barely heard in households across the nation. But our recent research shows they are making a (welcome?!) return to neighbourhoods across the country.

Preliminary findings are being written up from our latest qualitative wave of ‘green’ research (6 extended focus groups in Glasgow, Birmingham, London) but the key finding is – that recession is good for the environment – or the environment needs a recession!

Six months on from our last wave of research, people from all walks of life are increasingly putting environmental concerns low down on their list of priorities (barely registering at all for many people) and this has shifted significantly in the last 6 months – their financial concerns and pressure from the credit crunch, fuel bills, energy costs etc mean that they are reducing their environmental impact indirectly.

We are back to a way of life (that we 60s and 70s children grew up with) where fathers shout at their children for leaving lights on (‘do you think I’m made of money?’). The notion of centrally heating all rooms being a ‘god given right’ has disappeared almost overnight. The phrases ‘turn the bloody television off’ and ‘there’ll be no pudding unless you eat your mains’ are now showing at a household near you. Sound familiar?