Daily briefing: Tuesday - Still grim up north

A Bradford MP has taken the issue of rising motor premiums into his own hands. We report today that Bradford North East MP David Ward has pulled together a draft report looking into the reasons why his constituents are paying sky-high premiums for their car insurance.

Like the rest of the UK, Bradford’s reasons for rising motor premiums are fairly clear: personal injury claims inflation, uninsured driving and ‘cash for crash’ fraud.

Bradford has seen the biggest increase in car insurance premiums in the last 14 years – ever since Towers Watsons began producing its Insurance Price Index. Drivers in the West Yorkshire city have been offered quotes in the region of £20,000 – and they will now understand why.

‘Cash for crash’ fraud is a serious problem in the city, with Bradford ranked the fifth most-affected city. But this doesn’t compare to its uninsured driver problem. The city’s BD3 postcode has the highest number of uninsured drivers in the UK – a title it has held for the past 13 years.

So what is Bradford going to do about its unwanted problem? There is, understandably, a lot of anger vented towards uninsured drivers in the city. The government’s Continuous Insurance Enforcement scheme will hopefully go some way to tackling this problem. Other suggestions included automatically scrapping uninsured vehicles, more police resources, mandatory insurance discs in car windscreens and banning ‘no win, no fee’ claims and referral fees.

Ward was particularly emphatic with the latter point, referring back to the Legal Services Board report, which claimed there was a lack of public support for a ban. “Our survey suggests that in fact public support for such a measure would be strong.”

Ward’s view would also be supported by insurers, who slammed the LSB’s decision not to not to impose an outright ban on referral fees back in May. The LSB recommended that referral fees should be more transparent to the customers. Those in support of a ban could well argue that the LSB is out of touch with the issue and suggest they revisit the issue of public opinion.

Towergate introduces 11 new MDs

As it gears up for the arrival of new chief executive Mark Hodges and an eventual flotation, Towergate has continued to plant the seeds of change. It today unveiled the line-up of 11 new managing directors to head up its new regional broking division, which sits within Towergate Retail. The business was restructured earlier in the year and the consolidator is certainly making sure it has all of its bases covered.