The First Cut is the Deepest?

Advice from the UK Environmental Secretary that one can help bees and other pollinating insects by 'leaving the lawnmower in the shed' are a bit disingenuous (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/04/bees-uk-protect-liz-truss-pollinating-lawnmower). Certainly more flowers would be helpful to these useful organisms but urban lawns tend not to have much plant diversity (unless this is planted for) and there even seems to be economic inducements for people in some areas to replace lawns by hard-standing for car parking (this can, apparently, be a 'nice little earner' in London and some other locations). Urbanisation is a problem for pollinators but the current plights of these insects seems more closely linked to agricultural practises including the use of neonicotinoid insecticides that the government to loath to ban.