Brown: Weather losses to hit insurers hardest in the north

RSA expects its claims burden from the big freeze in the UK to be broadly in line with competitors that write business country-wide.

However, UK chief executive Adrian Brown said those with a greater focus on the north, midlands and Northern Ireland will take a proportionately bigger hit.

RSA announced this morning that the bad weather in November and December last year would have a £142m worse than normal impact on its business.

Of the £142m, it attributed £110m to the UK. The bulk of this - £72m - was household claims, largely for burst pipes as a result of the freezing conditions.

Speaking to Insurance Times earlier today, Brown said: “I would expect the impact would be proportionately similar for those of us with a broad spread country-wide.”

He added that RSA has a 6% share of the UK household market. “You might see more discrepancies in local companies.”

According to Brown 18% of RSA’s claims came from Yorkshire, 17% from the North West, 11% from Northern Ireland and 10% each from the East Midlands and Scotland.

“A company more focused on the south would have got off relatively lightly,” he said.

Read more in next week's issue of Insurance Times.

RSA was the subject of takeover speculation earlier this week. We asked how plausible is a bid for RSA in our latest online subscriber exclusive: RSA: When the hunter becomes the hunted.