Why the UK’s “warm homes” moment will fail if we keep ignoring what’s happening under our foundations
In the past few days, London has been back in the headlines for the worst kind of property story: sudden, widening cracks in wall in high-value homes—an uncomfortable reminder that ground movement doesn’t care about postcode prestige.
And this isn’t an isolated anecdote. After the exceptionally warm, dry spring and summer of 2025, UK subsidence claims climbed sharply—£153m in the first half of 2025, with almost 9,000 households supported and an average payout above £17k.
At the same time, the UK is pushing hard on retrofit: insulation, heat pumps, upgrades to EPC performance—supported by policy and funding that is evolving fast (and sometimes controversially).
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: retrofit changes buildings. It changes moisture regimes, ventilation, heat flow, internal humidity—and sometimes even loads and vibrations during works. If we don’t pair that wave of change with a ground-first mindset, we risk creating a new generation of failures: cracks that reopen, floors that go out of tolerance, doors that never quite shut again, and insurance claims that become slower, costlier, and more adversarial.
This is where GEOSEC UK has something genuinely different to say.
The UK is getting wetter—and hotter. That means movement in both directions.
The Climate Change Committee has been clear: the UK should expect warmer, wetter winters (higher flood risk, saturation, softening) and continued hotter, drier periods (shrink–swell in clays, especially in the South East).
In practice, that creates a punch-and-counterpunch cycle:
- Winter: saturation, softened ground, washout paths, local voiding.
- Summer: shrinkage in clay, loss of support, differential settlement.
- Shoulder seasons: rapid moisture swings—often the most damaging.
If you work in subsidence, you know this isn’t academic. It’s now portfolio risk.
The hidden retrofit risk: we upgrade the building… but the ground keeps rewriting the script.
The retrofit conversation is understandably dominated by energy. But the building that becomes “warmer” can also become more moisture-sensitive. A few examples we keep seeing in the market:
- Cracked masonry that reappears after internal works because soil movement wasn’t stabilised first.
- Slabs and ground floors upgraded for finishes or tolerances, only for voiding and pumping to keep progressing underneath.
- Repairs that treat symptoms (repointing, stitching, cosmetic finishes), while the cause remains: loss of bearing and uneven contact.
This is exactly why “monitoring” has become the dividing line between repairs and solutions.
A different approach: stop guessing. Start imaging.
Most ground solutions are sold as a “method.” GEOSEC’s differentiator is not just the method—it’s the visibility.
For ground improvement below slabs, pavements and foundations, GEOSEC combines resin injection with 3D Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and on-site verification before, during, and after treatment, so that the intervention is guided by what the ground is actually doing—not what we assume it is doing.
Why that matters in the UK:
- Clay behaviour is spatially variable, especially in London Clay corridors and mixed made ground.
- Drainage paths create highly localised soft spots.
- Voids and washouts can be small but structurally decisive—particularly under slabs and at interfaces.
Imaging turns “ground risk” into a map you can act on.
Speed matters too: the UK can’t afford long shutdowns
The UK’s built environment is dense, busy, and operationally unforgiving. Disruption is often the real cost driver:
- Logistics yards can’t stop moving.
- Retail can’t close for months.
- Residential insurers need safe, staged, auditable interventions.
Resin injection, when properly engineered and controlled, is valuable precisely because it can be rapid, low-invasive, and return-to-service oriented—not only in buildings, but also in rigid and flexible pavements, roads, and external slabs.
And in high-demand industrial settings—where heavy vehicles accelerate joint deterioration and water ingress drives washout—targeted consolidation beneath slabs can restore contact and performance with tight laser-level control and minimal downtime.
“Right tool, right depth”: resin injection and micropiling are not enemies
One of the most persistent failures in subsidence remediation is false choice: either injection or underpinning.
In reality, complex UK properties often need a hybrid strategy:
- Ground improvement where the soil is recoverable, voids are manageable, and rapid re-support is needed.
- Micropiling / structural support where deeper competent strata must be engaged, or where loads and geometry demand it.
That’s why GEOSEC’s capability set matters commercially: the conversation can move from “selling a product” to engineering a solution—including micropiling options designed for constrained access and minimal auxiliary works (a recurring UK constraint in terraced housing, rear access, and occupied sites).
What this means for insurers, housing associations, and asset owners
If subsidence frequency and severity are trending up (as 2025 already hinted), the market will reward partners who can offer three things at once:
- Evidence (before/after verification, not just “we injected X litres”).
- Speed (reduced downtime and fewer secondary trades).
- Predictability (repeatable outcomes, reduced re-open rates, auditable records).
That is the GEOSEC positioning in one sentence:
We don’t just stabilise—we measure, verify, and document the ground response in 3D, then apply the lightest-touch intervention that achieves the structural objective.
Closing thought: retrofit is the UK’s moonshot—ground truth is the life support system
The UK can (and should) pursue warmer, cheaper-to-run homes. But the success of that national mission quietly depends on something less glamorous:
stable ground behaviour under changing climate loads.
If you want the retrofit to last, you start where the building starts: the ground.
