There was a time not so very long ago – around this time last year – when trying to find statistics about British homeowners’ attitudes to climate change and their perceived or real impact on it was a struggle. Government sources revealed little, Google turned up nothing much of use, and housebuilders had yet to commission surveys in any significant number. Nowadays the opposite is true.

In only the last fortnight surveys by major UK housebuilders Redrow and Kingerlee Homes have been published. Redrow tells us its survey finds: “Two-thirds of home owners believe they are making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, while 80% say they would be more likely to buy a new home that was eco-friendly.”

Kingerlee, meanwhile, concludes from its survey: “Nearly 75% of the UK public believes more needs to be done to combat carbon emissions, and 75% said they would be interested in living in an environmentally friendly home.” What’s not revealed is if is the same three-quarters who answered both questions. One presumes not as the survey is based on a survey of 1,100 people, says Kingerlee.

Redrow doesn’t say how many people, when, where or how it conducted its research. What it does tell us, however, is: “Homeowners’ individual endeavours to be more energy efficient include filling the kettle with only the amount of water needed (85%); turning down the central heating (77%) and hanging out the washing to dry rather than using a tumble dryer (76%).

“Use of a private motor car was the one area where few people seemed willing to compromise, with 89% of respondents admitting they could not live without their car. Only 9% currently take part in a car share for work or on the school run and just 6% use public transport every day, although 71% said they had deliberately walked or cycled rather than driven on a short journey in the last six months.”

Kingerlee notes “58% of respondents said they were concerned about the cost of sustaining new technology, 39% with the upkeep of advanced technology and 27% in maintaining the property’s temperature. Fully 60% of respondents are unsure what a zero-carbon home is, and 55% believe the government should concentrate further on reducing the environmental impact of the country’s old housing stock, as well as in the new homes market.”

What neither survey does – and hundreds more like them – is reveal the methodology used, or denote which independent source carried out the research. In other words, how much faith should we place such surveys? Probably, we’d do well not to read too much into them; they are indicative of trends perhaps, but are not something that one should consider as any type of gospel.

That is not to bemoan the fact that they exist, or that there is a greater profusion of them than there was this time last year. If nothing else it makes a journalist’s job easier when trying to discover just what, or even whether, the British think about global warming and are homes’ and personal impact upon it. Ultimately, however, perhaps their greatest use is to give opinion writers something to scribble about!