Industry braces for winter storm claims

UK insurers are facing a wave of claims from the high winds and rain that have buffeted the UK since the beginning of the year.

AA Insurance, for example, has said its claims team is receiving 200% more calls than it normally would at this time of year, while The Co-operative has been quoted in news reports as saying that it received more claims on 3 January than it would usually expect to see in the whole month.

The comments follow a report from loss adjuster GAB Robins that it was dealing with more than double its normal daily intake of new claims.

Accounting firm PwC predicts that the storms could accelerate household insurance price rises.

“While it is still too early to put a potential cost on the damage caused, it is likely the UK storms will exacerbate the recent rises in household premiums in the regions where the storm hit most severely,” PwC insurance partner Mohammad Khan said. “For other parts of the UK, we would expect household premiums to continue to rise at the current rate – about 3% on average.”

Scotland was the worst-hit part of the UK, but England, Wales and Northern Ireland have also been badly affected. Homes in Nottinghamshire were left without power yesterday, for example, while 100 mile-per-hour winds brought down trees in Cumbria.

The high winds in the UK have been caused by a series of winter storm systems sweeping northern Europe. Windstorm Ulli was responsible for the high winds around 3 January, while yesterday’s gales were caused by Windstorm Andrea. Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands have also been hit by high winds and flooding.