The government is refusing to support a new amendment to install a swift brick in every new home – a U-turn by Steve Reed since he became housing secretary.
When he was environment secretary, Reed told a campaigner, Hannah Bourne-Taylor, she was “pushing at an open door” and he and others wanted to add to the party’s manifesto her proposal that developers must include a £35 hollow brick in every new home.
But since becoming housing secretary – infamously sporting a “build baby build” red cap at the Labour party conference – Reed and his new department are refusing to support a fresh parliamentary attempt to make the bricks a legal requirement for new homes.
Bourne-Taylor said: “He looked me in the eye and said yes to mandating swift bricks. Now is the perfect opportunity to preserve his own integrity as well as an iconic species for whom swift bricks are a lifeline. He would be preserving everyone’s most accessible touch-point to nature.”
The swift population has plummeted by more than 66% since 1995, with the birds losing traditional nesting spaces in urban roofs because of new insulation.
The Tory peer Zac Goldsmith has submitted a new swift brick amendment to the House of Lords, which will debate the planning and infrastructure bill on Monday.
Steve Reed wearing a ‘build baby build’ cap at the Labour party conference in September. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Asked if Reed would be supporting the amendment, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We are already increasing swift brick installation by setting out changes which would require them to be installed in all suitable new homes, and asking developers to begin including swift bricks in new-builds.”
The government, which blocked previous attempts by Labour MPs to introduce the bricks, will consult on changes to national planning policy guidance requiring a swift brick to be installed in all new brick-built homes. The hollow bricks help swifts and other endangered cavity-nesting birds, including starlings, house sparrows and house martins.
But the cross-party supporters of making swift bricks a legal requirement – which included the Labour party in opposition – argue that including them in planning policy guidance is not effective because of the widespread failure to redress the violation of planning conditions.
Hollow bricks would provide a ‘lifeline’ for a bird species whose numbers have fallen 66% in the past 30 years. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian
A 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.
Bourne-Taylor said: “How can the government know that they are increasing swift brick installation? What’s their monitoring system? Considering the tag-line is ‘build baby build’ why wouldn’t they embrace a bird brick? Given that every single relevant government minister has at one time strongly supported mandating swift bricks, collectively the government is sending a clear message that no voter should believe a word they say.”
The new swift brick amendment is also supported in the Lords by the former environment secretaries Michael Gove and Thérèse Coffey.
Coffey said: “In opposition, Labour were swift to criticise. Now, in government, they need to swallow their pride and vote with us to save our swifts.”
Lord Goldsmith said: “Labour strongly backed my amendment in opposition and Steve Reed supported it as Defra minister. It makes no sense at all for them to now oppose it. The only thing that’s changed is the number of swifts, sadly.
“What does it say for Labour’s interest in nature if it U-turns on even this simple, cheap and uncontentious measure?”
