Insurance in your Area

If you've ever wondered why household insurance rates in your area is different from, say, your brother-in law who lives in an entirely different part of the country, its because calculated risks depend on many local factors. Insurance companies go to great lengths to ensure that everyone pays a fair premium according to the level of claims that typically arise from a particular geographic or demographic group. Here is a insight into insurance risks in each of the main regions of the UK.

South East of England

This area of the country is littered with subsidence 'hot-spots'. Subsidence occurs when the ground around your house sinks down, and is particularly bad if one side of the house moves away from the other. In this part of England there are quite a number of areas that have a clay soil, which is especially prone to shrinking during the drier months and swelling up again when the wetter weather returns in autumn.

Other problems occur when properties are built on very chalky soil, as it wears away comparatively easily, especially where it is exposed to the elements. If you think of areas around natural beauty spots like Beachy Head in East Sussex, and particularly the Isle of Wight, because there are a lot of cliff faces and exposed slopes in those locations, the foundations of houses can be easily undermined.

London

This is worthy of a section of its own, as are most big towns and cities, as they bring their own issues when you talk about insuring your home and property. Being in the South East of England, London contains significant areas where the soil is predominantly of clay, and so is prone to subsidence. However, London also has another insurance hazard, the river Thames, and insurance companies are especially wary now of insuring properties that are in potential reach of any flooding river, let alone one of the size and strength of flow of the Thames. Even properties that have never been flooded before could be labelled now as 'at risk' because underwriters believe that global warming is increasing rainfall in general, which means that if rivers flood, they could flood in areas that have never before seen any flood damage at all.

Being a major city, insuring your contents and personal possessions can be expensive too, as the claims experience that insurance companies have shows that properties in major urban areas are more susceptible to burglary than those in quieter, rural areas. Some areas of London are 'higher risk' than others, and it depends to a great deal on individual insurance companies how high they think the risk is in any given area.

South West England

While the South West shares much in common with the issues of the rest of Southern England, the further west you go, the more granite is found, and buildings on granite have very little chance of experiencing movement like subsidence. However, being on the side of the country that is most exposed to the predominant south-westerly winds we have in the United Kingdom, many areas in the South West experience above average rainfall and also bear the brunt of any gale-force winds that make their way across the country. With global warming now an accepted fact of life according to insurance companies, the average and aggregate rainfall is set to increase over the next 25 years, which means that rivers will generally carry more water than they have in the past, and it could also mean that we get generally wetter weather with possibly stronger and more frequent gales. The risk of flooding therefore looks likely to increase, as does the potential for storm damage to homes caused by high winds and flying debris.

Northern England

This area of the country contains a mix of the ingredients that are particular to the other regions of the country. Because it contains a number of large cities, getting contents insurance in those areas can be very expensive and even difficult to find at all in some of the 'very high risk' areas in and around cities like Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle. Likewise, there are some areas that contain predominantly clay soil, so they are prone to subsidence. However, there are also areas that are built on granite where the risk of subsidence is virtually zero. Because it is further north, the area can be prone to some of the more extreme weather condition, with generally wetter and windier weather than the southern end of the country and, in winter, the chance of sharper frosts and sustained snowfalls. This increases the likelihood of water freezing in pipes, which very often results in burst pipes as the water expands when it freezes and turns to ice.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Although Scotland and Northern Ireland have a wide body of water between them, a lot of the issues that affect how home insurance is treated are common to both. Scotland in particular contains a lot of granite, so the general risk of subsidence is very low. The cities in each of these regions also suffer from the same treatment as underwriters give to most big cities - contents and personal possessions insurance will be expensive, even difficult to find, and they will usually insist that you have at least a minimum level of door locks and window locks fitted to your home, and in some cases might even demand that a burglar alarm is fitted to the property and activated overnight and whenever you are not at home. Scotland in particular also suffers the harshest winters of any region of the United Kingdom, so insurance companies are accustomed to seeing frequent and large claims being made a result of frost and snow damage e.g. burst pipes and flat roofs caving in under the weight of snow. As a result, buildings insurance premium and, to some extent, contents insurance premiums are usually higher to take account of the anticipated higher levels of claims.