This is horrific. According to the Natural History Museum’s Biodiversity Intactness Index, the UK ranks 189th out of 240 countries and territories for how intact its nature and biodiversity remain.
https://t.co/TtXoZZxuyF
@MartinSLewis Some DB pension schemes have protected retirement ages where the pension can be taken at an earlier age e.g. 50. Even if a policy has a specific retirement age e.g. 65, you may be able to take a reduced pension at an age prior to that, from age 55.
@MartinSLewis Some DB pension policies include death benefits to be paid to a spouse/civil partner, dependent or the estate if a policyholder dies before taking a pension. If sadly you lose a spouse/family member check with former employer/pension providers to see if there are any benefits due
@MartinSLewis When you are searching for an old pension make sure that as well as the name of the employer when you worked there, to check if the company merged with anyone else or changed its company name.
@MartinSLewis If you were still living with your parents when first working, could the pension be linked to a historic parental address? Or if you left the employer before a pension scheme wound up & they had no address at the time, the provider may have the policy as c/o the former trustees.
The UK government's war on nature continues, as @HomesEngland plans to build beside one of our most important nightingale sites.
https://t.co/vIigpKUqmX
“Your #lawn is one of the easiest ways to help #nature”, says Plantlife. Observe No Mow May and help repair the country’s disastrous loss of #wildflower meadows.
https://t.co/yc3Vn62o9h
@MartinSLewis@itvMLshow There needs to be a better way of reuniting old pension pots with policyholders which does not rely just on an NI number. A pension provider may not have been given it when schemes were wound up, especially with older policies. There are a huge number of lost policies out there.
Need a fence? What you actually need is a dead hedge.
A dead hedge is exactly what it sounds like: branches, logs, and woody cuttings stacked between upright stakes to form a natural fence.
It looks rustic, it costs nothing, and unlike a fence, it's full of insects and wildlife.
Birds nest in it, hedgehogs shelter in it, beetles, bees, and spiders colonize the rotting wood. As it breaks down it feeds the soil and you just keep adding to it.
Medieval farmers used dead hedges for centuries. We replaced them with vinyl fencing that doesn't break down or help wildlife.
Time to go back.
@HfdsCouncil would not like you to know that the orchids and adder's tongue ferns in ancient Grafton Wood cannot be moved successfully and cannot be mitigated for by planting saplings on compacted construction depot soils. BNG just won't happen, but you won't know till too late
Great news for nature 💚
In a bid to add a tad more biodiversity to some ofLondon’s less leafy locations, a rather impressive 14-mile ‘nature corridor’ is currently in the pipeline.
Led by conservation charity, Wild Cities, the project would see four London boroughs transformed by the horticultural highway, which is set to stretch from Lee Valley Regional Park all the way to the River Thames via the likes of Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey, and Newham.
Wild Cities aims to bring ‘unlikely allies together’ for the occasion, utilising cross-sector partnerships to deliver the verdant corridor.
Working alongside ecologists, local authorities, residents, civil society partners, and cultural institutions; Wild Cities aims to link isolated areas of wildlife (including community gardens, canals, parks, football grounds, and streets) to create....
https://t.co/bhSpwbjNMd
Rare “habitat specialist” butterflies, tied to places like wetlands, woods & flower-rich grasslands, are in steep decline. The white-letter hairstreak is down 80%. Still found in Coton, for now. All the more reason to protect the habitats we have left. https://t.co/Hk02dbWN0Z
Why, why, why @BucksCouncil ? This #nature reserve will be significantly harmed..all for more unaffordable homes that aren’t needed. https://t.co/FnfBOkzL0L
“A report due to be published on Monday by the Local Councils Network found that only about half of homes granted planning permission since 2012-13 had been built.”
https://t.co/1MJmG5dRmG
I’ve tabled a proposal to ban housing developers from donating to political parties.
The housing crisis is too serious for big money influence.
Developers profit from high prices and low standards - families pay the price.
Ban developer donations. People before profit.
As a proposed oil & gas project looks set to drill directly through a chalk aquifer beneath the Yorkshire Wolds supplying drinking water to 900,000 people, David Eddy asks:
Who is protecting our water sources?
https://t.co/L6ghn4JpIy