Latest news with #cavitynestingbirds
Telegraph
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
How the fate of endangered swifts has become a political battleground
As thorny issues go, the plight of the humble swift may seem an unlikely controversy to split political thinking. But, a proposed new law to make including a single 'swift brick' – a block with a cavity for a bird's nest – compulsory for all new homes is now at the heart of a pitched Westminster battle. Reform UK is hoping the environmental cause celebre for the 50 million-year-old species – backed by unlikely allies Jeremy Clarkson and Chris Packham – will help garner them support within the countryside's traditional Tory heartlands. Richard Tice recently posed holding a sign calling for the bricks to be used to help endangered cavity-nesting birds, such as swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings. The Reform deputy leader, who was once a housing developer, used social media to declare his support for the scheme and asked: 'why won't the Government act?' He wrote: 'The Conservatives rejected swift bricks in government, and now Labour is backtracking despite supporting them in opposition. 'Swifts – one of Britain's most iconic birds – are in steep decline, along with other cavity-nesting species. All they need is a brick with a hole. It's simple, low-cost, and essential.' The party's five MPs are now backing an amendment to the Government's planning Bill in a bid to make the £35 bricks compulsory. The amendment, tabled by Barry Gardiner, the Labour rebel, and backed by the Green party, Liberal Democrats and some Tory MPs, was revised to incorporate the bricks into building regulations, said to be the only way to ensure developers fit them to new dwellings. Although Labour supported the swift brick amendment when it was tabled in Conservative government legislation which failed in 2023, it has now reversed its position. Instead of legislation, Matthew Pennycook, the Housing Minister, wants guidelines to encourage, rather than compel, developers to fit the bricks. Hannah Bourne-Taylor, a 38-year-old former model and now environmentalist who has campaigned tirelessly on the issue – as well as walk nearly naked to Whitehall to promote the cause – believes her campaign has split the Right. She said: 'The swift bricks issue has become an unlikely political battleground. It is now a dividing line between Reform, who have declared their unequivocal support, and the Conservatives, who repeatedly failed while in Government to introduce a law to make them mandatory. 'The Tories are traditionally the party of the countryside. It remains to be seen whether they will pass it through the House of Lords where they have a majority. 'If they don't, the Tories will have killed off this amendment and have turned their backs on an issue that should be their domain. 'As for any fears Sir Keir Starmer may have that this scheme could scupper their plans to 'build baby build'; it seems remarkable that a brick used to do just that – build – could be seen to block developments.' The issue is to be debated in the Commons again during the report stage of the planning and infrastructure bill. The Conservatives failed to respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: 'We've always been clear that our ambition to get Britain building and deliver the 1.5 million homes should create a win-win for nature recovery and development. 'Swift bricks are a simple and effective way to prevent the decline of an important bird species, without impacting building delivery ambitions.'
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour blocks proposal for ‘swift bricks' in all new homes
Providing every new home with at least one 'swift brick' to help endangered cavity-nesting birds has been rejected by Labour at the committee stage of its increasingly controversial planning bill. The amendment to the bill to ask every developer to provide a £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings, which was tabled by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, has been rejected by the Labour-dominated committee. Despite the Labour party having supported the swift brick amendment when it was tabled on Conservative government legislation in 2023, housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, told the House of Commons committee: 'We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement.' A new petition calling for swift bricks to be made mandatory for new homes has rapidly reached 80,000 signatures in recent days, two years after activist Hannah Bourne-Taylor won a parliamentary debate to help the rapidly declining migratory birds after 109,896 voters signed a government petition. Bourne-Taylor said there appeared to be 'no logic' to the government's opposition to swift bricks when they precisely meet its ambition of creating win-wins for the economy and nature. 'They are going to be building millions of bricks into walls. I don't understand why there's such a problem with a brick with a hole in it. It seems ludicrous,' she said. 'Why say your new legislation is a win-win for new homes and the environment and exclude the only measure that is a true win-win? 'They are tone-deaf. This is such a tiny thing they could do, but it's brewing such a distrust and sense of betrayal among the people who voted for them.' Although some housebuilders are incorporating swift bricks in newbuilds, a recent University of Sheffield study found that 75% of bird and bat boxes demanded as a condition of planning permission for new housing developments had failed to materialise when the housing estates were complete. Asked if he would meet MPs to discuss how to encourage the building industry to adopt swift bricks more widely, Pennycook said he would be happy to have conversations with MPs despite claiming his correctly reported opposition to mandatory cavity-nesting bricks had been 'spun' in a Guardian report. These comments follow Pennycook's recent defence of the planning bill's proposed amendments to the Protection of Badgers Act that MPs warned would lead to 'hostile treatment' of the much-persecuted animal in which the minister joked: 'I would just like to make very clear, for the Guardian article that will no doubt appear tomorrow, that I have no particular animus against badgers in whatever form.' Bourne-Taylor said she hoped that the swift brick amendment would now be championed by the House of Lords. If that fails, Bourne-Taylor hopes to take her campaign to the wider public once again. The rising new petition for swift bricks 'just goes to show the public concern,' she said. 'The government are not listening to the public or the experts.'
