Future Homes Hub Boosts Urban Biodiversity Through Apartment Guidance

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The Future Homes Hub has expanded its influential “Homes for Nature” initiative to explicitly include apartment developments in an effort to enhance urban biodiversity. Released in July 2025, the updated guidance provides practical recommendations on integrating nature-positive features into multi‑story residential projects, such as non‑combustible nest bricks, hedgehog highways, pollinator planting, and sustainable drainage systems. The guidance emphasises that nature recovery efforts must extend beyond ground‑level spaces and apply to homes of all heights. This update follows the launch of the Homes for Nature commitment in September 2024, which encouraged developers to go above and beyond Biodiversity Net Gain regulations by incorporating specific on‑site measures for declining urban species like swifts and hedgehogs.

Since inception, this voluntary commitment has seen uptake from 28 homebuilders, cumulatively responsible for over 100,000 new homes per year. This translates into potentially installing at least 300,000 nesting bricks and boxes, with meaningful ecological benefits for declining species. The Homes for Nature initiative also now features in national planning policy, with government guidance encouraging swift bricks, bat boxes and hedgehog highways in housing schemes.

In related developments, the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Implementation Board, established through the Future Homes Hub, recently marked its one‑year anniversary in October 2025. The Board met on 22 October to assess progress and set priorities for the next phase of BNG integration. Ministers reaffirmed intentions to align consultation responses with broader national policy updates, including revisions to planning frameworks, though no substantial policy changes were announced. Developers are recommended to continue delivering according to the current BNG framework while awaiting further guidance.

Earlier this year, the Future Homes Hub also published a BNG Good Practice Guide in June 2025 designed to simplify on‑site implementation by providing a practical checklist alongside real-world narratives from industry practitioners. The guide aims to demystify BNG and support successful delivery at project level.

Taken together, these measures reflect a maturing approach to integrating nature-positive design within the residential sector. The extension of Homes for Nature rules to apartments means that densely populated urban areas, which saw rapid growth in flat developments, will no longer be biodiversity blindspots. And by pairing voluntary innovation with stronger governance via the BNG Implementation Board, the sector is reinforcing a foundation for delivering ecological benefits at scale.

What This Means:

The inclusion of apartment schemes in the Homes for Nature initiative signals a transformative step for urban biodiversity. Tall buildings often excluded from nature-focused policy can now contribute meaningfully to wildlife-friendly design. By embedding features like nest bricks and hedgehog highways at all heights, developers can help support species recovery even in dense housing clusters.

Meanwhile, the BNG Implementation Board’s review and the new Good Practice Guide provide clarity and stability for the sector. With ambitions to align future policy with practical delivery, these tools help developers navigate current requirements while preparing for evolving demands. The combined approach of voluntary ecological enhancement and policy-backed consistency paves the way for future home-building that genuinely supports biodiversity alongside low-carbon objectives.

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