Haringey environmental groups protest home insurers' 'green wash'

Haringey Tree Protectors staged the protest at the Association of British Insurers annual conference in Westminster today

Haringey Tree Protectors protest about insurance claims against trees outside the Association of British Insurers (ABI) annual conference at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Credit: Kristian Buus

Haringey environmental groups staged a protest today (27th February) in Westminster to call out home insurers for “green wash”.

Haringey Tree Protectors took the action outside the Association of British Insurers (AIB) annual conference at the QEII centre, calling out home insurers for “hypocrisy” over net zero targets while also creating policies which force the fellings of “thousands of trees”.

The protest follows a major dispute over the felling of a plane tree on Oakfield Road, Stroud Green, with insurance company Allianz leading calls to axe the tree which was blamed for causing “subsidence” of a home.

Paul Powlesland, Lawyers for Nature, said: “Insurers have realised a way to make more money by destroying nature and insurers have a legal obligation to repair houses that are affected by subsidence, but instead of fulfilling that obligation, they’ve realised they can rely on case law that ignores the rights of nature to exist. The key thing we need to do is to bring consumer pressure to bear on these insurance companies…we need to say that insurers need to stop killing trees unnecessarily or we will stop insuring our properties with them.”

Gio Iozzi, chair of Haringey Tree Protectors, said: “Insurers claim that they want a climate resistant future, yet they’re forcing councils to fell healthy trees often for baseless reasons. Corporate greed means insurers are wriggling out of paying for work on houses – they know councils are too poor to defend every tree. Felling a healthy tree is an act of ecocide in the nature crisis – the spotlight needs to come off trees and refocus on insurers’ corporate responsibility to communities and homeowners.”

A spokesperson for the AIB said: “We would be happy to engage with this group, if they would like to detail their concerns directly to us.”

Local news needs your support

We are proud that we were at the forefront of reporting on the recent local elections. We can’t do this without the support of our readers.

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.