‘Get tough’ call as parts of Bradford become no-go areas for car insurance

Grant Mitchell, of the Cooperative Insurance, said a “whole raft of measures” is needed to tackle the problem, with premiums rising in one Yorkshire city at a rate of 13 per cent every three months.

He was speaking at a summit held by Liberal Democrat MP David Ward, who is to present a wishlist of proposals to the Government based on a survey of insurance prices in his Bradford East constituency.

More than 1,000 constituents responded to Mr Ward’s survey, disclosing details which showed their annual premiums had risen by 63 per cent on average since 2009, from £552 to £897. It also revealed there are no-go areas in the city where some companies refuse to offer cover at all.

Mr Mitchell, head of motor insurance, said: “We are really in danger of creating an uninsurable generation of young people who simply cannot afford to be insured. The cause of that is an increase in claims costs, particularly an increase in the number of people claiming for injuries arising from accidents.

“Bradford clearly has particular problems. It has the highest rates of uninsured driving in the country and has one of the highest rates of insurance fraud.”

Mr Mitchell said the Government needed to start “clamping down” on fraudulent claims and impose “greater punishments” on those who make them. “Companies will cold-call and ask ‘have you had an accident lately?’. In a lot of cases, that data about customers has been sold. We need to clamp down on some of that behaviour.”

Mr Ward’s survey found that, although the number of reported accidents has fallen in recent years, personal injury claims have soared. And research showed the “Leeds/Sheffield area” had almost 10 times more claims management companies per head of population than the South West, and eight times more than Wales and the South.

Mr Ward said the Government should consider setting up a specialist police unit and introduce stiffer penalties to target uninsured drivers. He also suggested requiring claimants to provide more evidence of whiplash injuries before becoming eligible for compensation, and called for a ban on referral fees – paid by personal injury lawyers to insurers, credit hire firms and medical experts for customers’ details.

“This issue affects people in different ways,” Mr Ward said, “but for young people in particular, it can cost them a job. A young driver may not apply for a position if they have to travel to Halifax or Leeds and cannot insure their vehicle affordably”.

West Yorkshire Police’s acting divisional commander for Bradford South, Chief Superintendent Angela Williams, said more than 2,000 uninsured vehicles had been taken off the city’s roads in the past year, compared with 1,300 in Leeds. But she told the meeting at Bradford City Hall reports suggesting half of drivers in Bradford were uninsured were “utter rubbish”.

Among the respondents to Mr Ward’s survey was college student Leah Greaves, who said at least one insurer refused to provide cover in her BD7 postcode area.

“I was over the moon when I passed my driving test after a couple of attempts,” she said. “I immediately went online to check insurance prices only to be quoted £53,000 for an old Corsa. After an exhaustive search, the cheapest quote I found was for £5,000.

“I also was told over the phone by someone working for an insurance company they did not insure people in my area, and then they put the phone down on me.”

The AA says the most expensive region in which to insure a car is the North West, taking in Manchester and Liverpool, where the average cost of a comprehensive policy is £1,521. Greater London is second, with £1,069. But London was third to Yorkshire until July this year and Yorkshire is still running it close with an average quote of £1,058.

In December 2009, the website MoneySupermarket.com reported the most expensive postcodes for car insurance were, in order, in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bradford, London and Belfast.