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The plan to build three million new homes by 2020 will not satisfy demand, government advisors claimed on Friday.

The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit said too few houses could leave a generation unable to get its foot on the property ladder.

Ministers have allocated £10.2 billion for rented and low cost homes in the next three years and have promised extra funds for councils building family homes and those putting to use empty houses.

But will all these new buildings have gardens? And will the gardens of vacant properties be dug up for extra buildings or concreted over for parking? These questions are crucial to helping urban wildlife and halting losses of sparrows, starlings and song thrushes, all of which are declining fast.

Metre for metre, gardens, which cover 5,000 square kilometres of land in the UK, are the best show in town as far as wildlife is concerned.

Insects, birds, mammals like hedgehogs and wood mice, and of course plants, can all thrive in the smallest of spaces. But we have to let them and we have to want them too. The RSPB’s Homes for Wildlife initiative, launched at the weekend, proves you don’t need green fingers or a big plot to do so.

Housing advisers have told Minister Yvette Cooper we could need another 250,000 homes in addition to the three million planned for the next 12 years.

If three-quarters of those extra houses - have plants on balconies, small patches of longer grass or honeysuckle, ivy and sunflowers growing, those new homeowners will have collectively hit the RSPB’s target for its Homes for Wildlife project.

That’s how easy it could be to help the UK’s wildlife.

Read here about the need for more homes: http://business.guardian.co.uk/houseprices/story/0,,2200291,00.html

And here about the RSPB’s Homes for Wildlife: www.rspb.org.uk/hfw

Car makers will soon have to include health warnings about the environmental impact of their cars, in their advertising.
 
The new EU rule, due to be approved tomorrow, will make manufacturers devote 20 per cent of advertising space to information on their vehicles’ environmental impact.
 
But at the same time, the same EU politicians are letting the likes of VW and Mercedes off the hook by giving them another three years to cut their products’ emissions. That, together with reported attempts, particularly by the UK, to wriggle out of tough renewables targets, are severe blows to those who thought the UK and the rest of Europe was spearheading action to tackle climate change.
 
Road transport accounts for one fifth of the EU’s carbon emissions. This could be reduced if vehicle efficiency was improved now not in three years time, motorway speed limits were enforced and public transport was made cheaper and easier than car use.
 
A new prime minister together with a new set of ministers always heralds new policies. But these should make up for the deficiencies of those in post before them, not underline their predecessors' unwillingness to take on the world’s most serious environmental threat.
 
Click here for the Guardian's report on the UK's renewables wriggle

Grey squirrels, introduced from America, have run amok amongst the UK’s natives, much like American crayfish, American ruddy ducks and American GIs.

While their numbers soar, red squirrel populations plummet, our native species unable to cope with the grey’s appetite. They also have no defence against the disease the grey carries.

Numbers of several woodland birds are also dropping and have been doing so for some time. However, populations of some species are also shrinking in other parts of Europe where grey squirrels are not found.
 
A study by the RSPB and BTO found that only two bird species of 33 studied - the hawfinch and lesser-spotted woodpecker - were declining where grey squirrel numbers were highest.
 
Lack of woodland management, the earlier appearance of insects in spring because of climate change and problems on migration are all possible causes of the woodland bird declines but at the moment we can only speculate on which are most likely.
 
Where red squirrels can be helped, we support action to reduce the numbers of greys but, unlike Robin Page in the Daily Telegraph, we do not think this will help woodland birds. Improving woodland management is the priority to reverse the widespread loss of nesting and feeding sites for these birds.

Read Robin Page’s article here