100 signatures reached
To: Sadiq Khan Mayor of London
Homes for people - Homes for wildlife.
We call on the Mayor of London to support a scheme to give every householder when they move a chance to have a direct impact on wildlife conservation. Our campaign wants his backing for a scheme to allow for a very small sum of money, deducted from the commissions involved in the buying, selling or renting property, being used to provide a token to purchase new homes for wildlife, such as bird boxes, for the walls or garden of their new home.
The Mayor’s existing policies support improving biodiversity in planning new homes, and the Assembly has published a report to make these policies even better. But this idea could make much more of a difference by creating homes for nature, such as bird or bat boxes, whenever a home changes hands. With the Mayor’s support for this in principle, organisations who can take the idea forward in a practical way, such as estate agent bodies, housebuilders and the Environment Secretary, will be encouraged to add their support and make it happen.
Why is this important?
People are increasingly concerned about the pressures on wildlife. Especially in cities like London, many beloved species, such as hedgehogs, sparrows and bumble bees are all visibly declining.
The 2016 State of Nature report found that 7 per cent of urban wildlife species are nearing extinction.
[link: http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/State%20of%20Nature%20UK%20report_%2020%20Sept_tcm9-424984.pdf],
and the number of hedgehogs living in London has dropped by half since 2000.
[link: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/at_home_with_nature_-_encouraging_biodiversity_in_new_housing_developments.pdf]
People want to help but can an individual make a difference?
We believe they most certainly can, if this scheme receives the backing of the Mayor of London.
Every month in London thousands of homes are bought and sold. The commissions are considerable, and every home letting involves fees paid to the agents too. But what if a tiny proportion of these commissions were set aside to enable the new householder to buy a bird box, a bat box, bee-friendly plants or something else to encourage wildlife in some way? Its a simple concept - Homes for People - Homes for Wildlife!
The home’s new owner could chose which sort of measure to encourage wildlife would work best for them and gradually a whole new range of safe and secure wildlife homes would spread across the city.
Such a project has national potential but needs someone with the Mayor of London’s credibility to help get the various bodies, like the National Association of Estate Agents on board. They have always been painted as bad guys but we can give them the chance to do some real good with this scheme, by making it simple for people to give homes to nature.
If done in an imaginative way, for example by making the voucher a unique token like a coin, redeemable with companies or organisations that sell wildlife-friendly products, the scheme could be expanded in use. Other companies wanting to help people support wildlife could also buy and give away ‘eco-crowns’ and people could pass them on if they can’t easily use them in their own homes.
We could even have a competition, engaging with schools, to help design and name the ‘eco-crowns’ and another for product designers, to decide on the material (re-cycled plastic?) and ensure that the coins could not be forged.
Before all this, the first step, is to get people like the London Assembly and the Mayor to see the benefits and back the concept, and then win the involvement of national bodies like estate agents as it gains wider support. Please sign the petition and help get my idea off the ground.
This campaign was started by Maurice Melzak, a zoology graduate, naturalist and documentary film maker for more than 30 years. He first developed the idea in 2010, for Waterlow Park, where he gained the support of a local estate agent and a nesting box manufacturing company. It was featured on the BBC’s Springwatch.
Maurice volunteers at Highgate Cemetery where he keeps honey bees and advises on wildlife issues. He obtained a Biffa landfill grant to purchase over 100 bird and bat boxes for the Cemetery which has made a significant difference to the bird life in the surrounding area. (see pic).
With the need to save urban wildlife even more urgent, with a new Mayor and new support from politicians, he hopes this petition will get it off the ground and start to make a difference soon.
