Most homeowners would despair at the prospect of swifts roosting in the eaves or housemartins building muddy nests on their soffits. But residents of a new development near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, are being encouraged to share their homes with wildlife in a pioneering scheme which could change the future of housing in Britain.

New homes have been built with ‘swift bricks’, bat and sparrow boxes and house martin cups, while gardens are being planted with native shrubs to attract bees, help hedgehogs and encourage creepy crawlies.

The £81 million, 1,000 acre ‘Kingsbrook’ site in Broughton includes 2,450 homes, but has been designed so animals can move freely throughout the residential areas. The whole development is connected by green wildlife corridors of hedges, strips of wildflower grassland or gaps in fences and walls.

Gone are the dispiriting rows identikit housing and instead half the site has been given over to ponds, parks, meadows, orchards and even a nature reserve with a shallow bay to encourage invertebrates.

And rather than channelling rain into underground pipes, groundwater is directed along ‘rills’ and ‘swales’ on the surface, allowing natural wetlands to develop, which are a haven for wildlife and help prevent flooding.