Innovation Group’s Gary De Groot hosts an interactive roundtable session on the future of Subsidence where we will look ahead at the pressures faced within the industry, alongside his colleagues Richard Rollit and Craig O’Driscoll, and Sarah Dodd from DACBeachcroft.
The industry has ambitious net carbon 0 targets in place and during this session we will be looking into the challenges of this, how it will affect subsidence across the UK and how we will achieve this.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the session, delegates will:
- Understand where Subsidence is headed and what the future holds
- Be able to describe how we achieve the ambitious net carbon 0 targets?
- Know if increased subsidence volume is the new normal volume?
- Be able to explain how climate change is likely to play into these considerations?
- Know if the FOS requirement of a ‘lasting and effective repair’ create an unnecessary environmental burden?
- Understand if resilience is the answer or does it create too much redundancy and waste?
About the speakers
Gary De Groot, Business Development Director, Innovation Group
Gary is Business Development Director at Innovation Group having joined the business in January 2019. He has worked his whole career in claims, having performed a number of roles across Claims Handling, Account Management and Sales.
Gary has worked alongside some of the UK’s largest motor and property MGAs and has detailed insight into what makes many of them so successful.
Richard Rollit, Technical Director, Innovation Group
Richard has spent 30 years working in the insurance industry, joining the Innovation Group in 2012.
Richard has specialised in handling subsidence claims, with a passion for developing our technical understanding to deliver innovative solutions that put the customer at the centre of our business.
In 2005 Richard was a founding member of the Clay Research Group (CRG) which aims to;
• Further the knowledge surrounding subsidence
• Find new methods to control and prevent subsidence
• Develop risks models with AI to predict subsidence
• Provide methods of repair that are less intrusive to the customer to reduce disruption and are more cost effective than current
• Reduce the claim lifecycle by systems both at triage, investigation, mitigation, monitoring and repair – whether this is either via prediction, remote analysis, or improvements to techniques
• Provide solutions that are sustainable and reduce the impact of our footprint on the environment
The CRG have delivered 2 PhD’s and an MSc testing a range of techniques relating to site investigations, monitoring and developed and continue to share risk maps covering the UK in our monthly newsletter – a free download. Work in relation to Abscisic acid, a drought hormone that regulates water consumption in plants formed the basis for the development of the Intervention Technique which Innovation Group patented in 2017. We have used this technique successfully on several hundred claims as a low-cost alternative to tree removal.
Craig O’Driscoll, Director of UK Property Services, Innovation Group
Craig has over 25 years’ experience of building pathology and insurance principles. Craig is a motivation and inspiration leader and is responsible for our property operation.
Working for a Tier 1 Insurer, Craig developed high performing regional and national Field teams. His ability to remain proactive and strategically focused whilst delivering tactical solutions is an inevitable skill that Craig has brought to Innovation Group.
Craig has over 25 years of experience dealing with subsidence claims and has lived through many general peril and subsidence surge events!
Sarah Dodd, Solicitor, Partner and Head of Subsidence, DACBeachcroft
Sarah is a partner and head of the Subsidence team at DACBeachcroft and is also the Chair of the industry Subsidence Forum.
Sarah has nearly 20 years of experience dealing with subsidence claims and has lived through at least 3 surge events! Sarah’s experience is on both sides of the fence, acting for insurance companies insuring damaged properties, as well as local authority tree owners.
Sarah is a keen environmentalist with a growing interest in how the insurance industry will deal with the pressure of reaching net carbon zero and maintaining biodiversity gain which effectively mitigating damage in subsidence claims. Subsidence is interesting in that it is the only peril made worse by global warming but where the solution, to remove trees, in itself contributes to making global warming worse. This contradiction will see a lot of innovation and fresh thinking in the world of subsidence over the next few years.
