Living off the grid, that great dream of self-sufficiency which burns strongly in many people seems to be coming back into vogue.
Why be reliant on state-run utilities for water and electricity when, with a bit of effort, you can generate your own? Why drive to a supermarket to buy food that has been transported thousands of miles, when you can feed the family from food grown in your own garden?
More and more people are asking such questions and like Tom and Barbara in The Good Life, that iconic Seventies sitcom, they are challenging their neighbours out of their ecological complacencies.
Estate agents have certainly noticed the shift in emphasis, from purely materialistic priorities, to values rooted in a deeper sense of responsibility for the future of the planet.
