MP David Ward who represents Bradford East has undertaken research on behalf of residents to find out what has caused the increasing cost of insurance premiums for people living in Bradford over the past few years.
The MP completed a survey of a number of residents after one of his constituents advised him of an extortionate quote for his son’s first car to be insured, totalling £26,000. Of those surveyed, it was found that a 63% increase in insurance premium costs had been inflicted on people, hitting £900 compared to £550 three years previously.
Aiming to get to the root of the price hikes, Mr Ward investigated what the reasons behind the cost increases was, finding that despite common beliefs that uninsured drivers were mainly responsible for pushing the cost of insurance up, the highest percentage of prices being increased was in fact due to personal injury claims being on the increase. David said,
“As we began to look at it we realised it was a really serious issue a lot of people were affected by and started to look at some background.”
There have been other factors leading to the increase in prices too, such as insurance fraud and credit hire cost increases.
A more than 70% increase in the number of personal injury claims has been seen over the last 10 years, whilst the occurrence of accidents where the involvement of third party claims has gone up by 25%. Bradford however has the highest number of personal injury claims in the UK, hitting 38%.
One problem, Mr Ward pointed out, is that some people see making personal injury claims as a way to get some money back on their premium, which he said brings an ethical consideration into play.