House of Lords pushes for bird-safe glass requirement in England’s new buildings

All new buildings in England could be required to use bird-safe glass under amendments to the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill now before the House of Lords.

A cross-party group of peers – including Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green and independent members – has tabled changes to the legislation that would introduce mandatory bird-safe glazing standards and other wildlife-friendly features. The proposals will be debated in Parliament in the coming weeks.

The amendments follow criticism from the government’s Animal Sentience Committee, which warned that the current Bill overlooks the welfare of individual wild animals affected by construction and development.

Proposed changes include:

• Amendment 225 to mandate bird-safe glazing in new buildings
• Amendment 212 to require integrated swift nesting boxes
• Amendment 338 to include measures such as hedgehog highways and bat boxes.

Bird-safe glass is designed with ultraviolet patterns or coatings that make windows visible to birds, reducing collision risk. Conservation groups estimate that up to 30 million birds die each year in the UK after striking windows, a figure that could be cut by more than 90% if bird-safe glazing were mandated.

NGOs including the Wild Animal Welfare Committee and the UK Centre for Animal Law have written to ministers urging support for the amendments. They are also calling for new requirements for Spatial Development Strategies and Environmental Delivery Plans to take animal welfare explicitly into account.

The UK is a major producer of bird-safe glass but does not currently mandate its use. Similar requirements exist in parts of North America and Europe.

Baroness Freeman, a crossbench peer who tabled the bird-safe glass amendment, said the measure would be a low-cost way to prevent bird deaths and bring England in line with international best practice.