Action now vital on car insurance (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Action now vital on car insurance

9:00am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Our View By Telegraph & Argus

The comments of Prime Minister David Cameron on the issue of car insurance costs and the compensation culture that has played such a large part in driving rates up, particularly in our district, are very welcome.

However, it is surely time for some form of tangible action on this to back up the many strong words we have heard. The issue has been causing concern in the Bradford area for many, many months now, culminating in reports last year of one young man being quoted £26,000 to insure his car.

Similar horror stories of five figure sums followed, and it was also revealed that motorists in the city saw an average rise of 17 per cent in the cost of premiums last year – the highest in the country.

Local MP David Ward organised a summit in Bradford on the issue, and prepared a very detailed dossier.

Mr Cameron has now given a strong pledge to tackle what he describes as ‘this damaging compensation culture which has been pushing up premiums’. Which is all well and good and must be applauded. But at the moment, it is just words.

What we really need now is tangible action that actually has an impact on this situation.

The Government pledged to ban referral fees stopping personal injury solicitors from buying the details of people involved in car accidents last year, but we are still waiting for that to actually appear on the statute books.

Hopefully we will now see Mr Cameron put his words into action, starting with implementing the ban on referrals, and then looking at other ways to stop trivial claims.

This has been an unnecessary burden for too many law-abiding Bradford motorists for too long. They have heard plenty of words – now they want to see some positive action.