Campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor fears goal of requiring all new homes in England to include a hollow brick to help endangered cavity-nesting birds may be dropped

On more than 50 occasions over the past three years, Hannah Bourne-Taylor has lugged an oversized brick through the parliament’s security screening.

Security staff know her fondly as “the swift brick lady”. But now Bourne-Taylor is having to ruffle political feathers over what appears the simplest of nature-friendly measures – a small legal clause requiring all new dwellings to include a £35 hollow brick, providing homes for endangered cavity-nesting birds including swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings.

After walking naked except for a thong through London – twice – to raise awareness of the plight of swifts, winning a parliamentary debate and cross-party support for the brick, Bourne-Taylor is facing her greatest foe yet: a Labour government terrified of voters defecting to Reform.

  • bedbeard@feddit.ukEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    is £35 a high cost for one of these? It would be 1 per property, sounds alright to me.

    For your other questions I think this paragraph suggests they are good to go really (not sure about cleaning, do people clean out bird boxes?):

    According to Bourne-Taylor, multibillion profit-making housebuilders have signalled in high-level government meetings they have no objections to the bricks, which are widely made by conventional brick manufacturers. There is already a British Standard for them, which means there’s no government investment required for development, guidance or standardisation.