Nature recovery must be primary focus for government and developers, writes Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust expert
The recovery of nature must be a primary focus for government and developers, writes Erin McDaid of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.
The Wildlife Trusts’ new report, Swift and Wild: How to build houses and restore nature together, calls for a strategic approach to planning and housebuilding as part of efforts to achieve wider environmental targets, including net-zero and protecting 30% of land for nature by 2030.
It also highlights the importance of embedding efforts to improve energy efficiency and delivering fair access to nature into the housebuilding process.
One of the new government’s key pledges is to build 1.5m new homes over the next five years, and it recently announced a consultation on revisions to planning policy designed to deliver more affordable, better-designed homes quickly to grow the economy and support green energy.
Our new report highlights approaches that could ensure development has a positive impact for nature, climate and communities while meeting clear housing need.
These include urban habitat creation, community energy schemes, sustainable drainage systems to limit flooding, wildlife-friendly lighting and local food growing opportunities.
The Wildlife Trusts are keen for developers to share best practice to create better places for people to live with affordable, efficient and nature-friendly housing.
It is vital that new wildlife habitat is created close to new housing, especially in urban areas, to reduce inequality of access by ensuring people can connect and benefit from access to nature on their doorstep.
For too long, nature, climate and housing have been dealt with in isolation, holding back positive progress, causing direct conflicts and exacerbating issues such as flooding. By embedding nature recovery into the planning system, these challenges can be tackled together.
Here in Nottingham, we’ve been advocating for a ‘nature first’ approach to the redevelopment of the city’s Broadmarsh area. We hope that the ‘Green Heart’ is just the start of a creative and cohesive approach to create a place where people can live, work and play while connecting with nature – and hope to see this approach adopted elsewhere in the years ahead.
The government is right to have bold ambitions in terms of the numbers of houses it wants to build and for the switch to green energy, but developments of the wrong type in the wrong place have contributed to habitat loss and species decline and we must ensure this type of impact is prevent or at worst, accelerated due to the housebuilding drive.
Now is the time for the government to show an equal level of ambition for restoring nature as it has stated for housing targets and green energy production.
The UK is already committed to protecting at least 30% of land for nature by 2030, but sadly, as we approach 2025, the evidence suggests we are headed in the opposite direction with little time to turn things around.
Without a joined-up approach, achieving this challenging commitment will be nigh on impossible. Every community should benefit from living in nature-rich neighbourhoods, and the government have a responsibility to make this a reality.
Efforts to protect the nature we’ve got left are no longer enough. There is a critical need for new space for nature, which is why The Wildlife Trusts are calling for a new land designation, Wildbelt.
Alongside a nature centric, or better still, nature first approach to land use planning — to help balance competing land uses such as development, food and green energy production, Wildbelt could be transformational in terms of putting nature into recovery.
A new Wildbelt designation would protect land currently of low biodiversity value specifically to allow for nature recovery.
Construction is one of the UK’s largest sources of carbon emissions. Enhancing energy efficiency by embedding features such as solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and green roofs can reduce emissions and people’s bills, while also supporting their health and well-being and supporting wildlife.
Low-cost changes, such as incorporating swift bricks into new developments can directly support nature recovery while creating nature-rich neighbourhoods — by building into nature from the start — provides wider social and environmental benefits such as improved health and wellbeing, reduced air pollution and flood resilience.
The benefits of a more strategic approach are clear. But a drive to show swift progress towards ambitious house building targets before a more joined up approach to land use planning and a holistic approach to house building are in place risks developments being green lit that don’t contribute to nature’s recovery — or worse still, takes place on land that provides the only chance to expand and re-connect vital habitats close to where people live.