A Bradford MP has called for tough action to stem the rise in car insurance premiums, after discovering drivers were being quoted as much as £20,000 for car insurance.
Holding a summit yesterday (23 August) to examine the problem, David Ward, Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East told summit attendees that the government needed to intervene to stop car insurance premiums spiralling further out of control, before people could no longer afford to drive.
According to the Confused.com/Towers Watson car insurance price index, the average price of a comprehensive car insurance policy in Bradford is £1,370, the highest anywhere in the UK, rising 39.8 per cent in a year.
It’s followed closely by east London where car insurance prices are on average £1,705, up 38.9 per cent in a year. (Use our quick calculator here for prices in your area.)
At the summit, Ward unveiled the findings of his report into the cost of car insurance in Bradford. The report revealed that the rises in car insurance premiums were down to:
An exceptionally high level of personal injury claims via ‘no win, no fee’ claims management companies.
Increasing levels of ‘cash for crash’ car insurance fraud, where Bradford highest level in the UK.
Ward said: “People in all parts of the UK have seen their premiums rocketing over recent years but our research shows that Bradford has been hit especially hard.
“There are areas where we need the government to intervene and change the law, but we also need to work with the insurance industry and the local community to help bring premiums down to an affordable level for Bradford residents.”
In the report, one Bradford resident shared his personal experience with car insurance fraud in the area.
He said: “I was speaking to a taxi driver about the high cost of car insurance when he said: ‘let me arrange for my friend to crash into you or the other way around, and we will pay you £2,000, plus £500 per passenger in the car’, and he proceeded to break down the costs and payments like it was a business he was running. I asked ‘Have you done this before?’ to which he replied ‘Yes its big business in Bradford’.”
Further suggestions outlined at the summit included:
- Introducing harsher penalties for uninsured drivers, and setting up a self-funded specialist police force in order to target them.
- Banning the payment of referral fees so that insurance details cannot be passed onto to third party claims management companies.
- Resisting the ECJ ruling that gender cannot be used as a rating factor when working out insurance rates.
Further research is to be conducted into these proposals, and David Ward is seeking high level Ministerial meetings in order to discuss their findings.
Ward has also launched a petition for affordable car insurance which so far has 700 signatures.
