Swift bricks are to be standard in Scotland. Won't England and Wales follow?

Pointed of tail and brown of feather, the insect-eating swift has flocked back and forward between Africa and Scotland for generations. But numbers aren’t now what they once were, and the species – Sunday name Apus apus – was added to the UK Red List for conservation status five years ago.

Habitat loss – nest site loss – is a major factor in the bird’s decline, with figures down by 69 per cent on a UK level since 1995. 

According to the most recent edition of the annual Breeding Bird Survey there was a six per cent boost in its presence in Scotland between 2023-24, but this is little consolation against a 63 per cent fall from 1995 numbers.

The disappearance of almost two-thirds of a non-invasive species over just 20 years must surely be cause for concern and the Scottish Parliament has agreed, voting for a new measure aimed at creating more nesting sites for a bird that tends to make its home in buildings, moving into crevices under eaves.

Changes in the built environment mean these are now in shorter supply than before and so the new solution – swift bricks – has been adopted. The specially designed blocks cost about £30 a pop and are to be installed into new builds “where reasonably practical and appropriate” after MSPs backed an amendment put forward by Green politician Mark Ruskell.

The measure is part of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill and Ruskell, who represents Mid-Scotland and Fife, was a-flutter at the outcome. “This is what practical, common-sense nature recovery looks like,” he said. “It doesn’t block housebuilding, it doesn’t add red tape, and it doesn’t push up costs in any meaningful way. It just makes sure that when we build new homes and workplaces, we leave space for wildlife too.”

The change is in contrast with last year’s decision by the UK Government to swerve such a rule for England. The Labour administration opted not to write it into regulations and instead made a change to planning guidance, with no legal obligation on developers or planning authorities to install the boxes. Which probably means many will go without.

Dorset-born conservationist Hannah Bourne-Taylor, who has spent years campaigning for swifts, has said the rest of the UK should follow Scotland’s example. She was in the public gallery for the stage three vote on the bill, so keen is she on the matter. “Come on Labour,” she said in a message to Downing Street, “you can’t offer some toothless guidance that won’t be followed to the scale needed, telling us it’s not possible to mandate swift bricks when Scotland’s just passed the law straight away.”

But action to enact the change won’t be quite as speedy as some might expect. There will be a 12-month consultation first to work out standards. 

Still, Conservative peer Zac Goldsmith has been impressed at the rate of decision-making. “It’s only taken Scotland one month to decide to mandate swift bricks, proving how easy it would be for England to finally mandate too, after four years of asking, and upgrade the non-statutory guidance to ensure all new builds have swift bricks,” the former Defra minister said.

That does, of course, ignore the fact that this isn’t a new idea and it hasn’t been advanced at the first time of asking. Ruskell has pursued this one doggedly, raising it with ministers since 2023.

And what of Wales? Well, its government also said nay to swift bricks last year, arguing their adoption could complicate ‘net benefit for biodiversity’ measures, which are written into planning policy and emphasise biodiversity impacts within construction, with developers using the bricks as an easy tick-box step instead of taking a more considered approach.

Of course, we can look to other jurisdictions too. Take Gibraltar, for instance. The British Overseas Territory has made the bricks a must for new builds and roof refurbs, and the signs are that the species’ decline may have been checked.

Climate action minister Gillian Martin seems to think it’ll work here, championing “practical ways” to boost numbers. She’s called “the twin crises” of climate change and biodiversity loss “the existential threat of our times”. 

Observers could see this as a sticking plaster which will do little to boost biodiversity overall. Not so, say supporters, the nest-site provision will support other threatened birds like sparrows, house martins and starlings. Which in turn will have its own knock-ons for the natural world.

Writing this, I have been repeatedly distracted by winged visitors outside my own window: a chaffinch, a pair of plump wood pigeons, a berry-munching starling and, best of all, a charm of eight goldfinches, the flash of their yellow feathers constantly catching the eye. They’re in the trees, hopping under the hedgerow and bouncing between rooftops. Why wouldn’t you want all this, and more? 

So let’s bring on the swift bricks and build respect for the environment into the fabric of our communities.