The UK climate never really stops being moist, and our houses are routinely at least a hundred years old and made of brick, built before we knew how to deal with damp and built without AC. If we rebuilt everything we'd fix it, but we can't.

new england is also pretty wet but because it freezes, we have basements (not sure about UK), so the stonework is below the habitable levels.

i get what you mean about not being able to fix it. from what it sounds like, the UK is leading the US by about 10-20 years in terms of "energy leaving the system."

That just means they've had 100 years to fix it.

DPC is pretty routine these days, and a lot of old houses get the treatment before they're flipped (as is the custom of our times)