For decades American builders have, in the words of the Joni Mitchell song, “paved paradise and put up a parking lot”. Now, a combination of the housing slump, the energy crisis and soaring prices for food is helping to keep the bulldozers at bay.

Demand for new homes on the outskirts of US towns has fallen spectacularly in the last three years, while foreclosures and speculative building have created a far greater supply of homes than there are buyers. At the same time, soaring fuel costs have made the long commute to work that much less attractive.