Kiera and Malcolm from the Planning for Nature team recently published a survey they have conducted of new housing developments. Their work reveals that developers are installing just half of the ecological features that they should be.   

Urbanisation can lead to harms to nature. Therefore, when developers obtain planning permission, it comes with a series of ecological conditions that they must meet to prevent biodiversity losses resulting from the change in land use. These mitigations and enhancements are intended to allow wildlife to thrive alongside human dwellings, creating new habitats like wildflower meadows, planting new trees, and installing homes for wildlife such as bird boxes.  

Between June and August 2024, researchers from the University of Sheffield visited 42 new housing estates across five Local Planning Authorities in England, covering over 291 hectares of land. Their mission was simple: to look at what was there on the ground and compare it to what developers had promised to do as a condition of getting permission to build.  

Their Lost Nature report, published by Wild Justice reveals that only 53% of the ecological features mentioned in planning conditions were present in reality.  

Looking at enhancements for specific species, large proportions of ecological features were missing. 83% of hedgehog highways, 75% of bird and bat boxes, and 85% of reptile refuges were not present on the ground.  

When it came to plant life, the developments didn’t fare much better, with 39% of trees either dead or missing, and 82% of woodland edge seed mixes failing to materialise. Even the features that had been planted weren’t always properly installed: 59% of wildflower grasslands were found to be sown incorrectly or otherwise damaged.  

The new Biodiversity Net Gain system introduced in 2024 is being used to justify increased levels of development on the grounds that ecological harms can be mitigated. This research highlights a worrying gap in the implementation and enforcement of these biodiversity enhancements, meaning very often the ‘net gain’ will exist only on spreadsheets. The reality on the ground is that nature is losing out.

Professor Malcolm Tait from the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield said: “The government has just announced ambitious housing targets, on the assumption that the planning system can ensure harms to nature are mitigated. But our research shows that housebuilders aren’t implementing the ecological enhancements to help nature that they have promised. What we have revealed is a huge, systemic issue and an urgent need for the planning enforcement system to be given the resources it needs to protect wildlife from harm.” 

Chris Packham, co-founder of Wild Justice said “We make laws – they disregard them. They promise us wildlife – we get nothing. They are laughing all the way to the bank – and bankrupting our biodiversity. There’s a human housing shortage, no doubt about that, but if these cheats have their way there will never be any homes for wildlife. It’s time to catch them, fine them or bang them up.” 

Click to download the report below.