Rest of UK has resisted calls to make builders install bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birds

Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.

The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”.

The swift move contrasts with the four-year battle to bring the hollow £35 bricks into law in England. The Labour government last year rejected an amendment to make the bricks mandatory for new buildings, instead introducing them into planning guidance, meaning there is no legal obligation on developers or planning authorities to provide them.