Proposta di blocchi di lavoro per “mattoni rapidi” in tutte le nuove case
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/23/labour-blocks-proposal-for-swift-bricks-in-all-new-homes
di fire2burn
Proposta di blocchi di lavoro per “mattoni rapidi” in tutte le nuove case
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/23/labour-blocks-proposal-for-swift-bricks-in-all-new-homes
di fire2burn
18 commenti
i thought labour might be running out of ways to make themselves less popular but theyve proved me wrong by picking a fight with endangered birds for no clear reason while also backtracking on a policy they supported less than 2 years ago. astounding work.
Labour just can’t help themselves, they seem determined to march headlong into defeat at the next general election. Flip flopped on such an easy win after initially supporting the proposals when they were in opposition, probably after receiving a few brown envelopes stuffed into their pockets by the big developers. It’s no wonder Labour are haemorrhaging voters to the Greens when they can’t even find it in themselves to support something as simple and beneficial as this.
It’s a nice idea but seems like a fucking bonkers thing to actually legislate and enforce.
It’s the owners decision if they want to encourage birds nesting in their walls.
Very strange to be taking an anti wildlife and nature stance when the greens are getting more and more popular as years go on and people generally become more aware of the natural world around them and how to live with nature and help support it.
It’s starting to feel like Labour are going out of their way to be shit.
Are they going to enforce it? With a fine more than the costs of the brick and related work to remember to put it in and actually charge said fine?
No?
Well then don’t do it. There’s way too much of this kind of “good idea shame barely anybody does it” regulation in the UK.
FYI these bricks cost around £40. Sorry, but if that’s unaffordable by developers then they are lying.
390 Bricks for £534 or one of these for £35. Do they even care about the birds, or do they just want to profit.
And cue the usual brigade, who couldn’t identify a swift if it sat on them and have only ever laid bricks in a toilet bowl, now masquerading as experts on wildlife and house construction.
This is where we’re at with the red tape cutting.
What should happen is that you put every feasible thing in to new builds to help wildlife. Then you don’t need to do any surveys and that’s the trade off. You save lots of money by not hiring the people doing the surveys but spend some money on conserving the species you’re likely to be impacting.
Fences/walls have wildlife holes, swift and bat bricks. A suds pond that’s made suitable for a range of species on site. And that’s me just throwing things in without trying.
But because the people in charge probably won’t live long enough to see the benefits of those sorts of impacts they just won’t do it. And they will still cut the red tape so we get the worst of both worlds.
I have birds living in a crack in my gable. They make a racket as early as 4am and shit everywhere. I’m not sure the unintended consequences of having “swift bricks” have been clearly thought out – especially when we are asked to take bird flu seriously you wouldn’t want one part of your wall/garden/ patio to be constantly covered in bird shit.
Good. This sort of bullshit regulation is exactly how you end up with a mountain of red tape that prevents anything getting done, and adds cost to the things that are. Hundreds of ideas that individually sound reasonable, but when put together incrementally create a significant regulatory burden.
Do these swift bricks actually attract swifts, or are they like all those ‘bug hotels’ built into everything that I’ve never seen a single bug use?
Another nail in the coffin (or brick in the wall in this case) for Sir Kunt and his merry band of tories
Good, literally no reason why you can’t just nail a bird box to the wall.
Having a brick that you can’t clean out every season will just mean it’ll get filled up and won’t be used by any birds.
I’ve got 7 bird boxes in my garden with removable lids, whenever I stop seeing birds go in them I go and clean them out for new birds to use. And they always get reused.
The bricks £35, my bird boxes were £5 each.
So why not just put bird boxes in the area, hell buy some bird boxes and go nail them to trees in the area if you’re that passionate about them.
People whining about this are weird. Put a offer on a new house for £5 less and go buy a bird box?
Ah yes. Lets make building anything even harder than it already is. Delightful
The problem with overregulation is rarely the cost of a single specific regulation but the overhead that comes with all the regulations added up,
While the brick costs £35 the cost of making and updating the regulation. Ensuring that architects, builders and bricklayer are aware of the new rule (each and every new rule) adds up.
You also need to ensure that the makers of swift bricks meet the government standard (which will add cost).
You’ll then also need get surveyors to ensure that companies are using bricks that meet the standard and aren’t just cheap versions with too small holes that degrade. If its to be correctly enforced, you’ll need to add workload to surveyors as well.
Then inevitably sometimes architects will forget the swift brick specifications, and even more likely the bricklayer, who’s trying to be as efficient as possible, will forget that in space x32 y43 the special brick should be put in and the house will be built without the brick. Maybe they need to redo part of a wall or hope no one notices and risk the cost of having to hire someone to remove a brick and insert a new one in (hiring someone to do that will cost much more than £35). All of this adds cost.
Then you take this small extra regulation and add it up with all other regulations and you get an expensive headache.
There is good reason that government policy at present is to deregulate and make building cheaper and quicker. We desperately need to build more quickly, cheaper and more efficiently whilst remaining safe.
Swift boxes clearly a fantastic idea that some housebuilders are doing voluntarily. But it won’t just cost £35 per brick. It’ll cost a lot more than that to have a rule.
You can also choose to hire someone to replace a brick with a swift brick yourself (or DIY it). Here’s a [good website](https://sheffieldswiftnetwork.org/how-to-buy-and-retrofit-a-swift-brick-its-simple/#:~:text=Where%20to%20install,large%20trees%20near%20the%20entrance) I found that shows you how to install one into your own home.
Unfortunately, I still rent so can’t do this myself.