Red squirrels’ homes have weaker protection than beavers’, campaigners warn
Britain’s endangered red squirrels are being let down by a gap in wildlife law that leaves their homes with weaker protection than those of beavers and bats, conservationists have warned.
Campaigners are urging ministers to strengthen safeguards for the native mammals as housing schemes, holiday developments and woodland felling put pressure on some of their remaining strongholds.
The warning comes as Save Our Reds CIC publishes a briefing backed by two leading red squirrel scientists to mark Red Squirrel Awareness Week, which runs from 5 to 11 October.
Marie Carter-Robb, the campaign’s founder, said: “Today it is easier to destroy a red squirrel’s home than a bat’s. Beavers, driven to extinction here around 400 years ago and since returned, now have stronger protection for their breeding sites than a native animal that has lived in Britain for ten thousand years. That cannot be right.”
Red squirrels and their shelters already have legal protection. But in England and Wales, the Wildlife and Countryside Act allows a defence where harm was the incidental result of a lawful operation and could not reasonably have been avoided.
The campaign says an equivalent defence was removed in 2007 under separate legislation protecting species including bats, dormice, otters and great crested newts. Red squirrels are not covered by that stricter regime.
Forestry Commission guidance confirms there is currently no mechanism for licensing forestry operations that may damage or disturb red squirrels. Existing wildlife offences nevertheless remain enforceable.
Save Our Reds wants the species added to Schedule 2 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, bringing its breeding sites and resting places under stronger protection.
Under the proposed change, damaging or destroying those sites would be an offence without requiring proof of intent. Work that would otherwise breach the protections would need a wildlife licence, subject to strict conditions.
The briefing outlines a possible route through secondary legislation, although detailed legal drafting remains to be settled. Separate action would be needed to extend the protection in Wales.
The call follows Natural England’s recovery strategy, published in April, which warned that red squirrels could disappear from mainland England within 25 years under a “do nothing” scenario.
Dr Craig Shuttleworth, one of Britain’s leading red squirrel conservationists, said: “We are now perilously close to losing red squirrels from large parts of Britain. In many areas, it feels like we’re not at the eleventh hour, but eleven seconds to midnight.
“We have the knowledge, the legislation and the conservation expertise. What is needed now is the political will to ensure those protections are properly applied and enforced.”
The campaign highlights three locations where it says development pressures illustrate the need for stronger safeguards.
At High Harrington, near Workington in Cumbria, Gleeson Homes has applied to build 79 houses on farmland off Woodville Way.
The developer’s ecological appraisal and a subsequent update identified impacts on red squirrels as “likely to occur” and recommended measures including retaining woodland and providing a buffer.
Residents say they have filmed red squirrels in a hedgerow where the proposed access road would run. The application, submitted in 2022, remains undecided.
In Ainsdale, Sefton Council’s cabinet declared the former Ainsdale Hope School site surplus to operational requirements in July and authorised access for housing feasibility work.
That decision did not grant planning permission. Residents say the site’s woodland and green space support red squirrels.
Separately, squirrelpox was confirmed in neighbouring Formby in July. The area forms part of England’s most southerly mainland red squirrel stronghold, where a major outbreak in 2008 was followed by an estimated 80 per cent population decline.
On Anglesey, an application seeks detailed approval for 493 leisure units, including lodges and cottages, at Penrhos Coastal Park.
Campaigners say surveys conducted between 2023 and 2026 recorded red squirrels there. The application remains undecided and will be determined by councillors.
Dr Peter Lurz, a red squirrel ecologist and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The current system of regulation and the legal framework allow timber extraction to be prioritised over red squirrel conservation, with impacts on survival that are not yet well understood.
“We need better protection and much greater consideration of our endangered red squirrels in decisions affecting their habitat.”
He added: “Consideration of red squirrel habitat within planning and forestry decisions should be mandatory. I completely support the proposed amendment to the Habitats Regulations in England, and I hope it inspires similar action in Scotland and the other devolved nations too.”
Save Our Reds is also calling for stronger enforcement of existing wildlife law, mandatory wildlife impact assessments before woodland felling and independent checks on biodiversity commitments.
Other demands include more rangers in red squirrel strongholds and continued investment in research into a squirrelpox vaccine and grey squirrel fertility control.
The campaign’s petition, launched in 2025, has attracted more than 110,000 supporters.
Marie Carter-Robb added: “This is not a silver bullet. Red squirrels face disease, grey squirrels and habitat loss. But stronger legal protection is a practical step the Government could take now, before more strongholds are lost.”
Further information: https://www.saveourreds.uk
Petition: https://www.change.org/save-our-reds
Link to briefing: https://saveourreds.netlify.app/briefing-paper-1.pdf
