Regular readers of this blog will know that recently the RSPB changed its strapline to ‘Giving Nature a Home’. Finding places for all the amazing diversity of wildlife in the UK and beyond is at the heart of our work, whether it’s hedgehogs, hoverflies or house sparrows.
But people need a home too. We can’t escape the fact that we are building far fewer houses than the population needs, and being able to afford somewhere decent to live is a real problem for many people. One recent estimate puts the annual need in England at around 240-245,000 homes. That’s far more than we are currently building – in the twelve months ending September 2013 it was fewer than 110,000. Those look like big numbers, but to put them in context, more than 400,000 homes a year were built at the peak of the boom in the late 1960s (that figure is for the whole of the UK, but the great majority of them were in England).
From nature’s perspective, what matters is not so much how many, but where, and how good?
What I mean is that firstly the location is critical. Avoiding sites which are important for biodiversity, such as SSSIs, is a no-brainer. Indirect impacts on designated sites may be an issue too, such as recreational disturbance on heathland. There are a host of other locational issues as well, such as avoiding areas of flood risk or water shortage, and making sure housing has good access to jobs and services.
The second critical factor is the standard to which new homes are built. Wildlife-rich green infrastructure should be an integral part of every new development. From swift boxes and nature-friendly parks and gardens to extensive areas of semi-natural habitat, nature can find a home near people’s homes – and we know that people also benefit from having nature nearby. New homes should also be low carbon and water efficient – changes to building regulations are moving us in the right direction, but there’s still much more to do.
Housing is high up on the political agenda, and this is welcome if it allows us to have a conversation about the where and the how good, as well as the how many?
The coalition Government is looking to the National Planning Policy Framework, along with a legal duty on councils to cooperate with each other and some financial incentives to deliver the homes needed in England. The Labour Party has promised 200,000 homes a year by the end of the next Parliament (2020) if it gets elected, and has commissioned local government guru and former BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons to work out how it can deliver this promise. Co-incidentally, 2020 is also the official target date to halt the loss of biodiversity.
The Lyons Housing Review was formally launched today, and you can find further details here, and coverage by the BBC here and the Guardian here. Sir Michael is being advised by panel of twelve independent housing and planning experts which covers a wide spectrum of views. I am a member of this group, and look forward to contributing a planning and environmental perspective.