Former mining activities could affect a third of residential properties

- RiskView environmental due diligence reports now includes enhanced mining, subsidence and ground hazards intelligence, including past insurance claims relating to ground movement -

With data* analysed by Landmark Information suggesting that approximately one-third of residential properties in England and Wales are located within close proximity of historic mining activities, new layers of ground stability risk analysis has been added to Landmark’s all-in-one RiskView reports, including the ability to identify past insurance claims made within proximity of the property.

The aim is to provide property owners, buyers and legal conveyancers with greater insight to hazards relating to man-made and natural risks for a given property.

The RiskView reports also include details of past insurance claims resulting from damage caused by subsidence to properties in the locale, providing ‘real life’ evidence of potential hazards for a given property.

Assessing historical mining records (using public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and Landmark Information Group Limited 2017) found that in 95 of the 385 Local Authority (LA) areas, over 50% of residential properties were located within 250m of mining activities. Of these, there are 34 LAs where 100% of the homes are located within close proximity of former mining activities. Only three LAs currently have no considered risk of mining activities.

If the RiskView report identifies the presence of a hazard, it could mean the property has a potential risk of structural damage from subsidence or heave. The desktop report covers a wide range of risks, including man-made and natural sources – such as coal and non-coal mining, landfill sites, salt mining, brine extraction and more – as well as providing subsidence insurance claim information, thereby highlighting both the risk and actual impact of local ground conditions.

Angela Gordon-Lennox, Head of Product, Environment, Legal & Mapping Landmark Information said: “Hazards relating to subsidence and other types of ground instability has the potential to cause widespread damage. You only have to look at recent news to see stories relating to subsidence, heave and sinkholes. Ground stability should always be considered as part of the property conveyancing process when buying a new home.

“When you talk to people about such risks, they don’t often realise the prevalence and regional variances in ground hazards across the country. It is therefore always worth researching risks of this nature to provide peace of mind.”

The improved RiskView reports can identify areas of land, which could be prone to ground instability and subsidence as a result of the natural underlying geology; this includes higher risk potential for landslides or sink holes. It also features information on real case subsidence insurance claims from leading insurance claims management firm, Crawford & Company.

For more information on Landmark Information click on www.landmark.co.uk/landmark-legal, call telephone 0844 844 9966 or follow the team on Twitter.

* Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Limited 2017. All rights reserved.

Ends

Notes to Editors:

Further data analysis by Landmark Information into former NON-coal mining activities:

Percentage of properties located within 250m of historic non-coal mining activities:
1. Dartford Borough Council 51%
2. Redditch Borough Council 46%
3. Poole Unitary Council 42%
4. Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council 41%
5. Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council 38%
6. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council 37%
7. Preston City Council 35%
8. Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council 35%
9. Broxbourne Borough Council 35%
10. Stoke-on-Trent City Council 35%

COPYRIGHT CREDIT TO BE PUBLISHED ALONGSIDE THE ABOVE STATISTICS:
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Limited 2017. All rights reserved.

To obtain additional statistics relating a specific local authority, contact Peppa Sheridan via peppa@peptalkpr.co.uk.

About Landmark Information:

Landmark Information, part of the Landmark Information Group and Daily Mail General Trust, is the UK’s leading provider of land and property search information, including digital mapping and environmental risk reports for property professionals.

Working closely with data providers including Ordnance Survey, the Environment Agency, the Coal Authority and the British Geological Survey enables Landmark Information to offer current and historical environmental risk management information and desktop mapping solutions for the property industry. Since 1995, substantial investment has been made in establishing the Landmark database, which is one of the largest geographical information databases in Europe.

Visit http://www.landmark.co.uk/ or follow Landmark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LandmarkUK

Editor’s Contact:
Peppa Sheridan
Peptalk Communications
01787 313822 // peppa@peptalkpr.co.uk