The plaster has finally been removed along with most of the kitchen.  You may think this is strange but the inability of the loss adjuster to do even the most simple task such as respond to an email or a letter had to be seen to be believed. 

 We ended up in the bizarre situation where the drying company were threatening to remove their dehumidifiers from the property regardless of whether or not the house was actually dry.  With good reason they were fed up as they had quoted to dry the property on the basis of one metre of plaster being removed from the walls.  The builder refused to remove the plaster, the loss adjuster agreed and when informed of the position of the drying company he sat on his hands for over a week.

To be fair to the insurance company they took my complaints seriously and after three fruitless weeks they were so fed up that they fired the loss adjuster and took matters back into their own hands.  At the same time they fired the builder and appointed new contractors who seem to be taking the job seriously.  Meanwhile the contents side of the claim appears to be moving to a conclusion only one week after the insurance company took it back in house.