29 May 2025
As National Garden Wildlife Week puts the spotlight on our outdoor spaces, it’s the perfect time to explore how housebuilders can work hand-in-hand with nature. At Walton Homes, we’re committed to creating communities where both people and wildlife can flourish. From clever landscaping to habitat-enhancing design, we believe modern developments should leave a lasting legacy for local ecosystems.
Amy Summerton, Director of leading Midlands housebuilder Walton Homes, explains how new housing developments can actively support local flora and fauna this National Garden Wildlife Week.
With the number of new housing developments steadily growing, the spotlight is on conserving natural habitats and promoting biodiversity. Modern developments don’t necessarily mean lost green space – through thoughtful design, smart landscaping and small interventions, housebuilders can make a difference in supporting local wildlife.
At Walton Homes, we are specifically designing not only our homes, but our sites to ensure that we are helping local flora and fauna thrive. Here are some of the ways that you can help us make a difference.
Creating habitats for local species
Features such as wildflower verges, bird boxes and hedgehog highways not only help local species to flourish in their natural environment, they add vibrant colours and textures to your home, garden and the surrounding area. Easy to manage with less mowing needed, wildflower verges create habitats for pollinators and other wildlife, while bird boxes and hedgehog highways allow animals to move about freely and seek refuge during the colder winter months.
Making Biodiversity a Priority in Planning
Adding wildlife-friendly features to housing sites is a big factor in helping both local flora and fauna bloom, but housebuilders are going a step further when making biodiversity a priority in their planning.
The previous government sought to mandate the use of swift bricks – bricks with holes that allow cavity nesting for swifts – in all new developments. While this is no longer a necessity, declining swift populations are already driving campaigns to bring back this simple and cost-effective method to seamlessly incorporate biodiversity into new housebuilding.
How You Can Contribute to a Greener Ecosystem
While housebuilders are including wildlife-friendly features into newbuild homes, homeowners can also create a greener, more balanced ecosystem in their very own back garden. If you are missing a hedgehog highway, a 13x13cm square can be drilled into fences to allow them to pass through – while being too small for nearly all pets.
You can also consider mounting boxes with different sized entrance holes at various spots in your garden, such as trees, fence posts or walls, with natural materials like twigs, straw and dried grass. These will attract various species and give them a place to shelter as well as boosting the biodiversity in your garden.
Walton Homes’ Very Own Commitment
Walton Homes is dedicated to doing its part when it comes to promoting biodiversity across its own building sites. Its Acresford development is home to an attenuation pond, which has already become a thriving hub for local flora and fauna. With each development assessed by ecological experts, the maturation pond is just one of the many ways that Walton Homes utilises to promote biodiversity and putting it at the front and centre of a development.
For Walton Homes, boosting biodiversity isn’t just a goal – it’s a longstanding achievement that we are proud to commit to.
