Nature loses out as developers fail to keep ecological commitments

A survey of new housing developments reveals that developers are installing just half of the ecological features that they should be.

A Wild Justice report, Lost Nature, written by researchers at the University of Sheffield, 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 simply not materialised, with 83% of Hedgehog highways, 100% of bug boxes, and 75% of both bat and bird boxes found to be missing from new developments.

The delivery of plant life across sites also painted a depressing picture: 39% of the trees detailed on planting plans were missing or dead,  and nearly half of the native hedges that were supposed to be laid did not exist.

Wild Justice believe that 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. They say that the Lost Nature report 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 seems to be that nature is losing out.

Read:

Full report: Wild-Justice-Lost-Nature-Report

Summary report: Wild-Justice-Lost-Nature-Summary