Millions of homes are at risk from climate-related subsidence, according to an analysis by the British Geological Survey (BGS).
The Guardian reports:
As hotter, drier summers driven by global heating become more frequent, the ground under houses can shrink and drag down a property's foundations. The most vulnerable areas include London, Essex, Kent and a tranche of land from Oxford up to the Wash on England's east coast, according to scientists, who say mitigation measures will be needed.
Anna Harrison, a scientist at the BGS, said: "By combining geotechnical information about volume change potential with data about projected rainfall and temperature scenarios for the coming century, we have been able to identify the areas of Great Britain most likely to become susceptible to shrink-swell subsidence." ...
In 2025, the UK experienced the warmest spring on record and the driest in more than 50 years. There were £153 million of subsidence-related insurance claims in the first six months of the same year. With climate crisis projections indicating that hotter, drier conditions are likely to become increasingly frequent over the coming century, the number of properties susceptible to subsidence-related shrink-swell is on the rise. ...
Harrison said: "Dry weather and high temperatures are a major factor in the emergence of shrink-swell subsidence. Looking ahead, these increases in hotter, drier summers are projected to continue."
I am not quite sure why they are mentioning one dry spring last year. Extremely dry springs used to be much more common:
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I’m surprised they haven’t got to the death of the first born yet?
More likely the ground is contracting due to all the water being pumped out of aquifers, required due to the rapidly rising population, due to immigration.
When their models can successfully predict the winning numbers in the National lottery for three consecutive weeks, I might start paying attention to what these grifters say.
The temperature 1 metre plus, underground is constant. Increased air temperature cannot heat it up and dry it out.
Meanwhile, in the real world, our glorious leader has led an attack on a Russian shadow oil tanker, personally heading the operation to stop the ship. In an interview in front of his soldiers, he said he was pleased on the one hand but would obviously have preferred the ship got to it’s destination of Turkey or India so that the oil could have been made into jet fuel to enable himself and commissar Milibrain to keep flying around the world. Everyone should understand that once Russian oil goes through a refinery it is no longer Russian oil.
A “convenient” operation in the small hours today, with media coverage to match. As it is impounded near Weymouth at present, seizing the content may be practical, if ExxonMobil want to play ball. Not far from Fawley refinery.
My first thought was – how much did this pointless showboating ahead of Never Here Kier trotting off to the G7 cost us taxpayers.
We’d all like a pay rise, how do we increase our budget? A scary press release seems to work for other ‘experts’, let’s see if we can write one ourselves.
In 2013 the village of Fairbourne in North Wales was announced to be demolished due to rising sea levels based on RCP8.5 calculations. A managed retreat meant that home owners would get no compensation. House prices dropped 40% overnight. All this despite Fairbourne having never suffered serious flooding, and it survived the two major storms in 2020 and 2022 that caused severe flooding elsewhere in North Wales.
For the politicians this is all a political game, a political theatre of virtue signalling. For the poor sods stuck in worthless houses it’s destroyed their lives. The authorities care not one jot about the people they are supposed to represent.
The climate cult continues.
Having been born and bred in an area full of coal mines and regular subsidence i know for a fact localised subsidence doesn’t happen in the way they are describing, a drop in the water table will lower the whole area not little bits of it, the housing will just drop with it by an infinitesimal amount
Please see the charts below showing Arctic ice extent and Daily Mean Temperature for +80N
Ice extent is looking lower then usual while at the same time the temperature is well below usual. Interesting that temperature may not be the sole driver of ice extent. Who’d of thought?
A few years ago a storm system in the Arctic blew a lot of the seas ice apart and outwards producing low sea ice levels not related to temperature.
Almost all old and oldish housing in London was not underpinned and the issue of shrinking and expanding clay was already a known issue. There was a lot of underpinning that started to happen to address this. In other words as long as regulation doesn’t get in the way people will try and find a way of fixing whatever problems come their way.
In addition what climate are these individuals expecting to change into? It is still Temperate as is the Arctic still Polar as is the Sahara still Arid. Out of hte 30 main climate zones which climate has changed and to what? If a climate shiftes then this means the climate zealots think the entire World must remain in some kind of equilibrium and all our experiences of weather and temperature coincide exactly with the averages. In fact unless we experience exactly the average temperature on a day to day basis then someone has sinned to make nature angry.
There’s a very simple reason as to why this so-called (fake) analysis has been published by the BGS. The boss of the British Geological Survey, Dr Karen Hanghoj, is a DEI appointment, thick as two short planks and has been “captured” by the anti-scientific Establishment narrative ……………… and she desperately wants an Honours ‘gong’; thus will do anything and everything in her power to achieve same.
Reaity: Millions of homes at risk from heat pumps, damp and power cuts.
Yes, along with those very expensive beachfront mansions on those little islands which by now were supposed to have been long submerged by rising sea levels. Damn those sea levels.
Who let the loonies out again? Must be Nuki, Montbiot and the other weirdos or ex weirdos
A figure is quoted for the total paid out to for subsidence related claims. It means absolutely nothing to me. What are the figures for previous years? Has it been adjusted for inflation? Have other reasons for subsidence (flooding, trees) been controlled for? I followed the link which takes one to AOL oddly enough. There’s no mention in the full article of any of this information. The article links to an Association of British Insurers website article. That doesn’t give any comparison either. The ABI article also says this:
“The ABI’s H1 2025 property claims data collection has improved market coverage compared to 2024. As a result, comparisons with previous periods should be treated carefully. Comparisons year on year of relative metrics such as average cost of claim and claims frequency should still be representative, but comparisons for absolute metrics such as total claims settled should be used with care.”
So it appears that both the Guardian article and the ABI one are both specifically seeking to push an agenda. The Guardian cannot claim to be involved in journalism – it’s a political campaigning organization that puts out opinion pieces and press releases for its chosen causes. Where is… Read more »
Good analysis, spot on. The Guardtard is paid to promote the con.
If last Spring was warmer than this year then it is getting colder.
Sea level has been rising reliably since the slow waring started St about 3mm pa. That’s 30mm per 10 years and 300mm or a foot per century. In Essex after the floods, concrete walls on top of the estuary banks were built. Adding another foot would cost very little.
Since glacial ice has melted, Scotland is rising by 1 to 2 millimetres every year. UK is a giant seesaw and Essex is slowly sinking into the sea at 0.5 to 1 millimetre per year. The sea wall is sinking too!
Sweden is still ricing by 1cm per year. The maps showing territorial waters have to be redrawn every year when a rock remains above water with the highest tide.
I recall seeing a documentary some decades ago before global warming was invented that showed how the Baltic Sea was retreating at the northern end due to rebound from the ice age.
Does that explain why SNP politicians look down on the English?
With those icy stares? Or is it stairs?
Funny London’s at threat despite the fact that groundwater is pumped out of the city constantly to prevent flooding, this has to be done as there is no industry left using it for industrial purposes and the water table always wants to return to floodplain conditions.
Most of the housing stock built before the 20th Century survived the concussion of tons of bombs during the blitz. A few ceiling fell down, doorways became out of true, but otherwise the houses stood.
Bluffers and bullshitters…
Popper’s falsifiability thesis – the Climate Con has zero to do with reality or facts. It cannot be disproven. It is not ‘science’.
Lakatos’ 1970 extension – most of ‘the science’ is what he called a ‘degenerative’ program, meaning the scaffolding of ad hoc, modelled maths or other nonsense to explain away disproofs.
The sheeple however, don’t care. If the stupidity dressed as ‘the science’ is on the idiotic box they believe.
It cannot be proven. Anything that cannot be proven therefore cannot be disproven, therefore is not science, it is religion.