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Written Question
New Towns: Planning Permission
Friday 17th October 2025

Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2025 to Question HL7834 on New Towns: Planning Permission, if she will set out in which designated parts of the Swanscombe Peninsula were jumping spiders discovered; and what were their prevalence.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The distinguished jumping spider (Attulus distinguendus) is found on the northern section of Swanscombe Peninsula, Kent, which is one of only two locations in the UK where it can be found, the other being Thurrock Marshes. Its prevalence is extremely low, and it is a critically endangered species due to habitat loss.