Tree Related Subsidence in England: Effects of Climate Change on the Built Environment

This paper investigates whether it is possible to improve the process of solving tree-related subsidence problems in England when they are caused by a local authority owned or protected tree. The paper provide an overview of the problem applying to both, historic and new buildings as well as the possible solutions that can be used to solve tree-related subsidence. The paper also describes a number of industry solutions to the problem and provides suggestion on whether surveying companies can improve their procedures to improve the successful rate and reduce the time of application for tree removal. An assessment of case law surrounding the topic s reported before discussing the results of primary data collection. Our research studied data from a surveying company on the costs and time taken to solve subsidence cases. The study finds that the main improvements surveying companies could make to the processes of solving tree-related subsidence is to make changes to its communication strategy and to obtain higher quality evidence about the cause of the subsidence sooner in the process. The findings should help surveying companies to improve their processes in the future, thereby reducing the costs involved, and the length of time it takes to solve subsidence cases.