New housing developments failing to protect wildlife - University of Sheffield

A survey of new housing developments by researchers at the University of Sheffield reveals developers are installing just half of the legally-binding ecological features to protect wildlife.

The Lost Nature report, written by researchers at the University of Sheffield and published by Wild Justice, has revealed that housing developers are not keeping legally-binding promises to help wildlife on housing developments
A survey of nearly 6,000 houses across 42 developments found that only half of the promises to mitigate harm to nature had been kept. Many ecological enhancements had not been provided, with 83 per cent of hedgehog highways, 100 per cent of bug boxes, and 75 per cent of both bat and bird boxes were found to be missing from new developments
The delivery of plant life across sites was also lacking with 39 per cent of the trees detailed on planting plans missing or dead, and nearly half of the native hedges that were supposed to be laid did not exist

New housing developments are failing wildlife on a widespread scale, new research from the University of Sheffield and published by campaign group Wild Justice, reveals.

Urbanisation can cause harm to nature. Therefore, when housing 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’s School of Geography and Planning visited 42 new housing estates across five Local Planning Authorities in England, covering over 291 hectares of land. The aim of the research was to look at what was on the ground and compare it to what developers had promised to do as a condition of getting permission to build.

The findings in their Lost Nature report, published by Wild Justice, reveal that only 53 per cent of the ecological features mentioned in planning conditions were present in reality.