The Government should replace any nature destroyed in its housing push by putting “wild belt” areas for plants and wildlife within new developments, according to the head of the Wildlife Trusts.
Craig Bennett said existing nature should be protected as far as possible as the Government embarks on a campaign to build 1.5 million new homes in England during this Parliament – a mammoth project that Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last week will involve “reviews of green belt boundaries” up and down the country.
This will see the creation of what Labour has called a “grey belt”, a new category of apparently second-rate green belt land loosely identified as “car parks, scrubland and former tips”.
But wildlife campaigners argue that much of this land – particularly scrubland – can be highly beneficial for wildlife such as birds and insects.
As such, Mr Bennett wants Labour to make sure it scientifically evaluates every single area of grey belt land to determine the environmental impact before any decision is taken on whether to build on it. And he is calling for nature to be put at the heart of any development that is given the go ahead.
“We recognise we need to be building new houses. But we could and should be building them in a way where we restore nature in the process,” Mr Bennett told i.
“Developers should work with environmental groups to create new space for nature at the same time as building houses – it can be done.
“If the Labour government wants to build new houses, it should designate ‘wild belt’ alongside it at the same time – so you’re getting this bit of land for new housing and this bit of land for nature.”
Examples of areas that would be suitable ‘wild belt’ land could include “land in local communities that’s being managed to enhance its biodiversity and give people more nature on their doorstep”, turning areas of agricultural land into grassland and restoring dry peatland so that it can absorb CO2 and protect against flooding.
Mr Bennett points to the one-hectare Birdbrooke Nature Reserve, which has been created with London Wildlife Trust as part of a development of 4,800 house development in Kidbrooke, south east London.
Developers should also protect what they can of the existing nature when they build new houses, he said.
“There might be an ancient tree that is important. A 200-year-old oak next to a knackered old petrol station. The preference would be that you build new homes around the oak tree. It’s perfectly doable but needs some careful thought.”
“I don’t think any environmental groups are fundamentally opposed to this [building on some green belt or grey belt land]. They totally understand the need to build new housing but how to do this well varies on a site by site basis, so we need to make sure we get this right,” Mr Bennett added.
Defra was approached for comment.