Member

We also feel that the legislative route is not the best way to achieve the objective of providing habitats for species alongside new homes. As we have laid out before, building regulations are designed to safeguard the health, safety and well-being of individuals in and around buildings, and we do not want to risk the unintended consequences that I have already outlined. While I thank the noble Lord for his amendment, we believe that using planning policy will ensure that swift bricks are incorporated into development proposals, where they are going to be an effective measure to help reverse the population decline. Taking an approach in planning policy avoids placing additional strain on a system already under significant pressure, it can be implemented—I hesitate to use the pun—more swiftly than other measures and it provides a less prescriptive, more adaptable framework, better suited to meeting the specific needs of what we in this Chamber all understand are very precious native birds.