Time to act on driver insurance (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Time to act on driver insurance

8:50am Thursday 12th January 2012 in Our View

The drivers of Bradford, it would seem, are set to continue to be treated unfairly by insurance firms and penalised for the actions of a tiny minority of criminals.

Motorists here have for too long been hit hard by insurance costs that are completely out of kilter with the rest of the country.

It has often been new drivers or people taking out new policies that have been the hardest hit, with some being quoted tens of thousands of pounds. New figures reveal, though, that it is not limited to those with changed circumstances or to a small number of horror stories.

A survey of the average rise in the cost motorists are paying for insurance shows it increased by 17.1 per cent in the Bradford district last year – more than 12 per cent higher than the 4.9 per cent average increase around the country.

Bradford has its share of motor crime and driving offences, but it is surely not so much worse than anywhere else? There is little doubt that residents with certain BD postcards are being extremely unfairly treated.

The question is, what can be done about it?

MP David Ward has been campaigning on the issue for several months, and says today that the situation cannot be allowed to continue. This paper would certainly echo that sentiment.

It would appear that at least part of the problem relates to the increasing number of payouts by insurance companies as a result of compensation claims. Undoubtedly, the growing number of companies specialising in claims is a factor in this.

It is a complex problem, not least due to the fact that a number of referrals to these claim companies are coming from the insurers themselves. But for the sake of Bradford drivers, action is needed quickly and decisively to tighten up restrictions on these referrals.