Insurers calling for trees to be felled as cheap fix for subsidence, say critics

Linda and Scott Taylor Cantrill outside their home in Exmouth, Devon. She has turned ‘into Boudicca’ to stop the chainsaws, she says. Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

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

“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 told the Guardian.