There has been much debate in recent months over the Green Belt and whether or not to allow housing upon parts of it.

There’s an undeniable need for more housing and Kent – given its proximity to London, coastline and good transport links – will always be a highly prized property hotspot.

But to give the go-ahead to building on the Green Belt could be the start of a very slippery slope that erodes the very purpose of it being such a protected zone.

Build a little here and a little there and before you know it, Kent could become the latest Borough of Greater London.

The Green Belt is not, as so often believed to be, any swathe of countryside in the county.

Instead, it is the division between the urban sprawl of London and the Home Counties which surround it. A ‘green’ buffer zone to ensure the metropolis does not spill out from its confines and consume the surrounding areas.

It wraps all around London – some 35 miles deep in places – as well as the nation’s other major conurbations.

Hence, in Kent, it mainly intrudes on those areas that butt up against the London boroughs – think Sevenoaks, Gravesham, Dartford and Tonbridge & Malling, among others.

And it isn’t, as you might imagine, all rolling countryside and hedgerows. The Green Belt was only introduced in 1938 and there was plenty of development in these areas before that time.

But it has subsequently been protected from significant development. Until, potentially, now.

Because the new government has said it’s open to building on ‘grey belt’ – the so-called ‘poor quality’ land that sits within the Green Belt zone.

In other words, those areas which have been developed in the past but now sit unused. But an old car park is a very different kettle of fish to, say, a housing estate and all that brings with it.

While there’s a strong argument to say it will not really eat into the Green Belt, it erodes it. And we know what happens to cliffs on the coast when that erosion takes place over the years; eventually it crumbles.

Nibbling away at the edges today is one thing. But it will, almost inevitably, lead to another gnawing in the years to come. And so on and so on. Future governments taking confidence from what has gone before.

We need housing in Kent. No questions asked. No one wants huge housing developments springing up on what was once fields, but it is a necessary step in some cases. We all, after all, deserve an option to have our own home.

But that Green Belt has perhaps never been so important to preserving Kent’s identity. If we allow erosion today, don’t be surprised if future generations wonder why it disappeared in years to come.