MPs have called for hollow “quick bricks”, which allow endangered birds to nest in them, to be made compulsory for new homes.
Many developers generally support proposals. But a body representing small contractors and housebuilders said decisions on such measures should be made at a local level, not nationally.
In a House of Commons debate on Wednesday (July 10), politicians from across the political spectrum backed a petition calling for flash bricks to be made compulsory for all new homes, with some backing the requirement to to all developments.
Matt Vickers, Tory MP for Stockton South, said the debate was “incredibly urgent” because endangered birds like the vanquished were “running out of time”.
In 2021, swifts, which migrate from Africa to Europe every summer, were added to conservation experts’ red list of the UK’s most threatened birds.
They usually nest in drafty spaces such as eaves or brick gaps. But Mr Vickers said efforts to improve home insulation since 2013 had meant “millions of birds have lost their homes”.
Quick bricks can also be used by other endangered birds such as martins, starlings and sparrows.
Currently, responsibility for policy on fast bricks rests with local planning authorities. But Vickers said there were questions about the councils’ experience and capacity, and called for “a move to a national policy” to drive change.
Richard Burgon, the Labor MP for Leeds East, said he had written to the housing secretary calling for fast bricks to be made a national planning requirement. He described the move as “a win for everyone – they don’t cost housebuilders much and would help save the rapids”.
The debate was held in response to an e-petition by writer Hannah Bourne-Taylor, which gained more than 100,000 signatures, calling for “quick bricks to be required on all new housing”.
In December last year, the government responded that while it welcomed the action of developers who want to offer fast bricks, it would not legislate to force councils or developers to include them.
He said that in some cases the bricks “may be inadequate” or “fail to achieve the desired wildlife connectivity”.
But Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, told the debate: “There is no reason why fast bricks should not be suitable in high-density schemes”, and called on the government to ” obligates the installation of fast bricks in all developments”.
Lucas also endorsed a suggestion by Caroline Nokes, the Tory MP for Romsey and Southampton North, that fast bricks could also be “a planning requirement for extensions”.
He said the government could “easily” enact a requirement, for example through an amendment to the Leveling and Regeneration Bill, noting cross-party support for the proposal.
Lucas claimed the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which is backing the petition, had “demolished the idea that quick bricks can sometimes be inappropriate”.
Mr Vickers said the bricks were “incredibly low cost”, with some available at £25 “which is pennies for the big house developers”.
He stated that after speaking to developers and representatives from the House Builders Federation (HBF), he believed they “welcome the proposals and see them as providing clarity and direction and a meaningful way of complying with the Environment Act. [which mandates that development should improve biodiversity on a site by 10 per cent]”.
Kerry McCarthy, Labor MP for Bristol East, said “the developers are not opposed to this proposal”.
“Barratt Homes has worked actively with the RSPB to develop a speed brick and has committed to installing speed bricks in all new homes built in Bristol as well as a number of other cities,” he added.
A spokesman for the HBF said the organization was generally supportive of the proposals, saying: “The developers are committed to delivering new energy-efficient homes in a way that improves the environment and are willing to work with those responsible policymakers to ensure a consistent approach that provides clarity and certainty.”
But Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning at the National Federation of Builders, pointed out that speedbricks are currently not recognized in the metric used to calculate whether developments meet their legal requirement to increase local biodiversity.
“If you put them in, you don’t get anything for them,” he said Construction news. “For small developers, that’s a problem because they don’t have large tracts of land to stick to hedges and trees and things like that.”
He added: “If you’re ordering a quick brick, it means you’re not targeting local spices.
“What you really want to do is target local biodiversity – you don’t just put in any habitat, you want to target biodiversity directly.
“That means 99.9% of local authorities can decide to do it, but they would have to make a decision for their local wildlife.”
Wojtulewicz added that “we are not opposed to the principle”, but said decisions on fast bricks should be made by councils rather than being mandated at the national level.
“There’s a better way to do it that targets local species, and I don’t think that’s been sufficiently understood by some campaigners and even MPs,” he added.
Responding to the debate, level minister Dehenna Davison said the government “currently has no intention of making flash bricks compulsory in new homes”, adding “you need to be cautious when it comes to imposing conditions of national planning”.
Matthew Pennycook, a shadow minister, said Labor was “not ruling out the mandate” but stopped short of fully backing MPs’ calls.
According to the RSPB, the number of swifts declined by 57 percent in the UK between 1995 and 2017. The UK breeding population was estimated at 59,000 pairs in 2016.
