’Insurance is vital for business operations across a wide range of sectors,’ says chief commercial officer

The construction sector currently borrows the most to fund insurance.

That was according to Premium Credit, which said that construction firms accounted for 14.3% of all net advances from last year.

That was 1.5% higher than in 2022 and 1.9% higher than 2021.

The professional and scientific sector, meanwhile, accounted for the second highest share of net advances at 12.5% last year, followed by manufacturing on 10.4%, wholesale and retail trade on 8.8% and land transport on 8.1%.

Jon Howells, chief commercial officer at Premium Credit, said: “Insurance is vital for business operations across a wide range of sectors, as demonstrated by the strong growth in net advances we have seen year-on-year.

“It is particularly important in the construction sector, which is consistently the biggest sector for lending.”

Cost

Premium Credit polled 1,332 SME owners in March 2024 for the survey.

It also found that around 50% of SMEs say the cost of their business insurance has increased in the past 12 months.

And around 17% of firms questioned said they have cut other costs in their business as a result of insurance premium increases in the past two years.