Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to either (1) encourage, or (2) mandate, the installation of “swift bricks” in new build or refurbished buildings, to assist conservation by providing nesting cavities for swifts and other birds.

All local authorities have a duty to have regard to conserving biodiversity as part of their policy or decision making. As well as this duty, national planning policy states that the planning system should minimise impacts on biodiversity and provide net gains in biodiversity where possible. Planning Practice Guidance published to help implement planning policy makes clear that relatively small features can often achieve important benefits for wildlife, such as incorporating ‘swift bricks’ and bat boxes in developments and providing safe routes for hedgehogs between different areas of habitat. Specific biodiversity features, such as swift bricks, would normally be required of developments through either the relevant local plan or the local authority’s development control team.

Through the Environment Act 2021 we have introduced a mandatory duty for developers to deliver a ‘biodiversity net gain’, which will mean that habitats for wildlife must be left in a measurably better state than they were before any development.