Housebuilders and contractors are working to conserve nature and improve biodiversity on sites around the UK. CM looks at some of their initiatives.
Keepmoat creates hedgehog highways
Housebuilder Keepmoat, a Homes for Nature signatory, has introduced ‘hedgehog highways’, a series of 13cm by 13cm holes included in its developments’ fences as standard, to help roaming hedgehogs pass through.
Reports suggest that in the 1950s there were 30 million hedgehogs in the UK, but there are estimated to be fewer than a million today.
Keepmoat is also providing homebuyers with tips on how to create a hedgehog-friendly zone in their gardens.
Crest Nicholson builds bee hotels
Housebuilder Crest Nicholson, which has also signed the Homes for Nature commitment, has constructed ‘bee hotels’ at several of its developments, including Grange Meadows in Somerset.
The hotels, designed by Elmtree Garden Contractors, provide a haven for bees to rest and lay their eggs. The initiative hopes to help reverse bee population decline while providing wider biodiversity benefits through pollination of plants.
Morgan Sindall partners with RSPB
Morgan Sindall has partnered with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) since 2023, helping fund the purchase of 54ha of farmland to extend the Lakenheath Fen reserve in Norfolk.
The land is being turned into wetland and grassland habitats for wildlife including endangered cranes and bitterns.
This will also reduce loss of carbon from the peat-rich soil. Morgan Sindall staff take part in volunteering days at the reserve.
Bouygues achieves huge BNG score in Llanelli
Bouygues is delivering a mixed-use development for Carmarthenshire County Council that is predicted to increase biodiversity by 137% on completion.
The 34ha Pentre Awel project on the Llanelli coast involved ecology surveys as well as measures to safeguard reptiles, water voles, otters, nesting birds and bats during the works, making sure the habitat is in a better state than before construction started.
Jones Bros relocates coastal wildlife
Civil engineering firm Jones Bros has relocated a habitat of honeycomb reef worm as part of its work on a coastal defence scheme in North Wales.
Prior to construction of the beach groyne at Penrhyn Bay, which involved 60,000 tonnes of rock armour, the contractor extracted the worms from under the footprint of the new defence structure and transported them to their new habitat.
Barratt lays swift bricks
Barratt is another housebuilder to sign the Homes for Nature commitment, which will see a bird-nesting brick or box installed for every new home built, such as on its Ladden Garden Village in Yate, Somerset.
A minimum of 300,000 nesting bricks and boxes are thought to be required to support swift populations and other bird species across the country.
Historically, swifts nested in the nooks and crannies of old buildings, but recently the loss of nesting sites has had a detrimental effect on the species.
Balfour Beatty plants wildflowers by M25
Balfour Beatty, National Highways’ contractor for the M25 junction 10 improvement scheme, is investing £20,000 in a wildflower planting scheme near Ockham in Surrey.
The project team is taking seeds from around Bolder Mere lake to grow at the nursery of wetlands specialist Salix in Thetford, before transporting them back to the site to replant, helping to create a space for wildflowers and other wildlife.
Sisk and Speedy Hire invest in peatland restoration
Contractor Sisk and equipment hirer Speedy have invested £10,000 into a biodiversity project to help reduce carbon emissions in England’s largest bog.
Staff from both firms helped with the planting of 10,000 sq m of cotton grass plants in the North Pennines, which will help sequester carbon.
Sisk and Speedy worked with North Pennines National Landscape on the peatland restoration project, which supports the companies’ sustainability targets.
