Until the Clean Air Act, Bradford was in real danger of being choked to death by the filth and the smog that cloaked the whole district.

The news that Bradford Council has set a target of more than 45,000 new homes by 2028 poses a new type of threat to the city’s environment.

It is no exaggeration to say that this level of building – which the Council admits will gobble up green fields and even “protected” greenbelt – will cause real damage to the district’s open space “green lungs”.

But as the Council rushes headlong into this strategy, the question must be asked again: who will need all these homes?

Yes, the city’s population is increasing but that alone could not justify this level of development. People aren’t moving here because of an expected boom in job creation, so where are they all coming from and why?

The answer is immigration, but the figures are based on estimates drawn up for the last Labour government which seems to ignore the policy changes and new controls that the coalition have announced to reduce it.

And some Eastern European immigrants are now returning home after finding the grass isn’t necessarily greener in the UK.

In many areas, there won’t be any grass at all if these targets are rigidly adhered to.

What we need is proof – hard evidence – that every rundown house, empty property, wasteland and area of former industrial use has been brought back into play before we start building tens of thousands of homes that may never actually be occupied by wage-earners putting something back into the economy.

Economic regeneration and new jobs can be created by the renovation of existing schemes just as much as by the building of new developments.