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Swifts: Bricks

Asked by Sir James CleverlyConservativeDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled Answered 20 October 2025UIN 81318

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 September 2025 to Question 69634 on Swifts: Bricks, if she will make it her policy to amend the Statutory Biodiversity Net Gain metric to allow the installation of swift bricks in new housing to count towards biodiversity net gain.

Answered by Mary Creagh

Swift bricks cannot be counted towards Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units, which must be calculated using the statutory biodiversity metric or its small sites version. The metric does not account for species-specific features, which are typically installed to mitigate the loss of features in the built environment.

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