NEWSPAPERS often have headlines about the threat to the green belt, that is the open land around a town that planners have decided shouldn't be built on so the settlements don't merge into each other.

There are often accompanying pictures of determined local residents urging support for this view.

I live in the green belt, or it could have been so described in 1911 when my house was built, not far from the BRI, and the evidence is maps of the time and the old dry stone wall that forms part of the garden boundary. However there was little fuss then as most folk lived in the terraced back to backs close to the town centre mills where they worked.

It stayed like that for decades until the slum clearances after the second world war and then many acres of local farm land became Buttershaw, Thorpe Edge, Allerton, Bracken Bank, Ravenscliffe and Holme Wood – large council estates providing rented homes.

This move to suburban living became even stronger with the sale of council housing, the emphasis on house ownership and the provision of new larger, more profitable houses by private builders further from town centres.

The British fixation on home ownership and suburban living isn't normal in Europe where renting is more common, often in the centre of major cities. In Germany and Switzerland over half the homes are rented, and it would be quite normal in Cologne and Zurich to see washing, curtains, flowers, a cat and the occasional head in the windows above the large stores and offices in the centre of these, and other, cities.

However the UK model, influenced by the landed gentry, has serious drawbacks, particularly in relation to the amount of carbon dioxide it produces. This suburban housing spread is dependent on car ownership leading to CO2 generating traffic jams at the start and end of every working and school day.

The other consequence of living so spread out is the harm it does to city centres. Unlike most in Europe many UK towns are almost lifeless in the evenings, with empty rooms above the shops. This built space could be converted into accommodation to avoid the need to manufacture more bricks and cement, and cut down more trees, all producing excessive CO2, just to build new houses on the outskirts.

However I suspect that this won't happen soon with the UK mindset and so when we do build on so-called Green Belt land, as we certainly will, then we should make sure that the houses are made from sustainable timber, are energy efficient to the highest standard, and have solar panels, electric car charging points, and permeable hard surfaces.