'I was Boudicca' Battles for trees that face axe as a cheap fix for subsidence

When Linda Taylor Cantrill found her dream family home in Exmouth, Devon, it wasn’t the location, square footage or local amenities that made up her mind - it was the 200-year-old oak tree in the garden.

- Kevin Rawlinson

“The way we felt about just standing in the shade of the tree was ‘we need this house, because look how beautiful it is,’” she said.

Little wonder then, that when an insurance company suggested chopping down the tree in an effort to arrest the subsidence affecting the house, Taylor Cantrill said she turned “into Boudicca”, to stop the chainsaws - launching a years-long battle that, this year, she finally won. Hers may seem like an isolated example of arboreal activism, but the issue of insurers recommending tree-felling as a cheap fix to building issues is one played out daily in Britain.

The problem, according to some campaigners, is so common that they fear it could bring about the loss of irreplaceable ancient trees.

Data on insurance-related tree-felling is difficult to pin down, but underwriters are braced for an increase in subsidence claims this year. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said there had been “unusually high spring temperatures” - often a cause of such claims.