I don’t believe it would be accurate to claim that Brits are suburban people at heart; yes, we like our homes (
an Englishman’s home is his castle after all and there is even a museum dedicated to homes; the Geffrye in London -
http://geffrye-museum.org.uk), but we also like our countryside so the result is relatively dense walkable urban settlements with low levels of sprawl (compared to most Western economies) that are encased within large Green Belts.
The absence of tenement neighbourhoods in English cities is more than compensated by the tight network of terraces that dominate many towns and cities. Portsmouth, Leicester and Accrington examples below.
Image sourced from Bing Maps: https://www.bing.com/maps
Image sourced from Bing Maps: https://www.bing.com/maps
Image sourced from Bing Maps: https://www.bing.com/maps