London, Hull and Grimsby homes most expensive to insure

Homes in London, Hull and Grimsby are the most expensive to insure according to latest research from moneysupermarket.com, with Shropshire, Devon and Pembrokeshire the cheapest and this gap is likely to widen in the future.

Westminster in London is the most expensive area in UK to get a three bedroom home insured, with premiums as high as £903 a year – 63 per cent more than the next most expensive areas in the UK, which is Hull at £552 a year. The Reform Report 2006 confirms that Westminster is one of the most ‘dangerous areas’ in London, together with Hackney, Islington and Southwark.

moneysupermarket.com, the price comparison website, believes the gap between most expensive and cheapest insurance areas is likely to widen in the future as insurers continue to load premiums in big city areas.

Richard Mason, director of insurance at price comparison website, moneysupermarket.com, said: “If your property is classified as being in a ‘high-risk area’ – whether that be for crime, flooding or subsidence, your insurance premiums will be comparatively high. The difference between the cheapest and most expensive areas is a massive 391 per cent, with a three bedroom homeowner in Bishops Castle, Shropshire paying just £185 a year. On the whole, the research shows that big cities, such as London, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds feature prominently as the most expensive areas in contrast to more rural areas such as Shropshire, Devon and Suffolk.

“There are many reasons for these differences in price. Home insurers look at the crime rate in an area, therefore your likelihood of getting robbed or burgled, the average property price, the affluence of an area and whether where you live could be affected by flooding or subsidence. There are no hard and fast rules though, so an affluent area which is relatively free from crime may still suffer from high premiums because of the rebuild value of homes. I would call upon all insurers to assess premiums on a case by case basis, rather than black list whole cities as ‘high-risk’.”

The research also highlights some major anomalies between car insurance and postcodes. The average premium for a woman aged between 45 and 55 and driving a Ford Focus is £2,634 a year in Liverpool, but in York it drops to £145 a year. The average premium for male drivers with the same car is £2,406 in Wembley, Middlesex, compared with £143 for the same cover in Shrewsbury.

Richard Mason added: “Car insurers look at the rate of car crime, the type of car you drive, your age and whether your area has drivers classed as ‘high-risk’ or particularly prone to accidents. So even you live in an area where the incidence of car crime is low, you could suffer high premiums because of the number of reckless drivers in your town.

“Home and motor insurers weight these various factors differently, so anyone who finds their insurance premiums too high should look for insurers who will assess their premiums on an individual basis. Consumers would do well to shop around and compare the market every year instead of renewing with the same insurer as this could probably save them a great deal of money.”