Green thrift

By Brian Groom
Published: July 8 2008 03:00

A silver lining may be hard to find in the economic downturn, but is there to be a green one? Conventional wisdom says concern about the environment vanishes when people cannot make ends meet. But the high fuel price is having more impact on personal behaviour than any exhortation to live a more "sustainable" life.
With a tank of petrol costing more than £50, there are fewer drivers on the roads and many are driving more slowly. Out-of-town shopping centres are worse hit than city-centre ones, with John Lewis reporting sales declines compared with last year of 24.6 per cent at Bluewater in Kent, 17.1 per cent at Brent Cross in north London and 16.4 per cent at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol.
There are other indicators of thrift-induced green behaviour. People may not like bin taxes but the middle class is embracing more sophisticated recycling. British users of Freecycle, a website that allows members to hand on unwanted products, have doubled to more than 1m in a year.
Investment in alternative energy is growing. Globally, a record £73bn at least is likely to be invested in clean technology this year, according to a report by consultants New Energy Finance for the United Nations.
So could this aid the revival of the cities - which use energy more efficiently - and help reverse migration to the countryside, suburbs and market towns? There will surely be an effect if the oil price stays high for long enough but changing a decades-long pattern of settlement and commuting will be painful.
The downturn brings problems for cities, too. Public and private funds for regeneration may dry up. The government's target of 3m new homes looks harder to achieve, whether on brownfield or greenfield sites. The high fuel price does, though, tend to vindicate planning policies that favour higher densities and urban development and discourage out-of-town shopping. And it leaves the government's plan for car-dependent "eco-towns" looking singularly ill-timed.
brian.groom@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008