Simon Glairy is a seasoned authority in the insurance landscape, bringing years of experience in risk management and a deep understanding of how data-driven insights reshape policy value. In this discussion, we explore the stark realities of the 2025 insurance market, specifically looking at the widening performance gap between top and bottom-tier insurers and the regulatory scrutiny following the latest Value Measures data. Our conversation navigates the alarming disparities in buildings insurance acceptance, the hidden volatility within the seemingly stable motor sector, and the emerging red flags in pet insurance that brokers must address before they become systemic failures.
With buildings insurance acceptance rates fluctuating by as much as 40 percentage points between providers, how should brokers interpret such a massive disparity in performance when advising their clients?
The fact that one insurer might accept 85% of claims while another settles only 45% is a staggering wake-up call for the industry that highlights a fundamental inconsistency in how value is delivered. When you look at the 2025 data, buildings insurance recorded the lowest acceptance rate of any general line at just 62%, and seeing a 13% complaint rate alongside those figures tells me there is a significant disconnect between what customers expect and what they are actually buying. This 40-point gap gives brokers a powerful piece of leverage at renewal time because it allows them to look beyond the premium and evaluate the actual “claims-readiness” of a carrier. It is no longer enough to just find the cheapest policy when three in ten home insurance claims are being declined across the board; brokers must now scrutinize the insurers sitting at the bottom of that performance range to ensure they aren’t setting their clients up for a frustrating rejection down the road.
Motor insurance appears incredibly resilient with an aggregate 99% acceptance rate, but what specific risks are hidden beneath that market-average success?
On the surface, the motor sector looks like a fortress of stability with more than 34.1 million policies in force and a marginal improvement in complaint levels from 7% down to 6%. However, the aggregate 99% acceptance figure is a bit of a mask that hides real variation; some individual providers are actually recording acceptance rates as low as 65% to 70%, which is a far cry from the market average. Even as retail premiums fell by 6.6% and average comprehensive premiums dropped 16% year-on-year to roughly £735, the underlying cost pressures remain immense with claims payouts reaching £11.7 billion in 2024. This suggests that while the market seems healthy, individual carriers are feeling the squeeze of theft and repair inflation, which might lead to more selective claims handling that doesn’t show up in the top-line averages.
We are starting to see “early cracks” in pet insurance, particularly with declining acceptance rates; how should the industry respond to these warning signs in such a high-frequency product line?
Pet insurance is currently a high-stakes environment because it records some of the highest claims frequencies in the market, with covered-for-life policies hitting a frequency of 41%. We are seeing a concerning downward trend where acceptance for these lifetime policies fell from 95% to 93%, while maximum-benefit cover slipped from 93% to 91%. While these numbers are still much higher than the dismal rates we see in home insurance, the declining trend in a product that customers use so frequently is a signal that carriers are tightening their criteria. Brokers need to flag this early with their clients because once acceptance starts to slide in a high-frequency category, it can quickly compound into a larger regulatory issue, much like the one currently drawing fire from the House of Lords and consumer groups.
Travel insurance has shown mixed results recently, with some categories improving while others slip; what does this divergence tell us about the current state of specialized risk?
The travel sector is currently a tale of two halves, where we see standalone single-trip acceptance improving to 83%, yet annual worldwide cover has slipped down to 84%. What is most telling is that complaints are rising across all three categories—single-trip, European, and worldwide—which suggests that even when claims are being paid, the process itself is becoming more friction-filled for the traveler. It is a complex landscape where European cover remains steady at 86%, but the overall sense of dissatisfaction is growing, likely due to more stringent documentation requirements or a lack of clarity in policy wording. For an expert, this divergence indicates that insurers are struggling to find a balance between competitive pricing and the rising operational costs of managing global travel risks.
Home insurance premiums have fallen recently but remain significantly higher than they were in mid-2023; how is this pricing pressure influencing the way insurers handle claims?
Although we saw home insurance premiums fall by 9.7% leading into July 2025, they are still more than 23% higher than they were in the middle of 2023, which creates a high-pressure environment for both the insurer and the policyholder. Insurers are grappling with persistent inflationary pressures on rebuild and repair costs, which is likely why the acceptance rate for combined buildings and contents cover has held at 71% while standalone contents fell to 71%. This environment of high costs and slightly dipping premiums often leads to a “squeeze” where claims departments become more pedantic about policy exclusions to protect their margins. It is a delicate time for the sector, especially with the Financial Conduct Authority expected to release findings from its value measures review in 2026, which will likely force more consistency in how these firms report their data.
What is your forecast for the insurance market?
I expect the next 18 months to be a period of forced transparency where the “performance gap” between insurers will begin to narrow, not because the low-performers want it to, but because regulatory and broker pressure will make it impossible to hide. With the House of Lords inquiry and the ongoing FCA review, we are going to see a much more standardized way of reporting claims data, which will eliminate the “inconsistencies” the regulator has already noted in home insurance reporting. Brokers who lean into detailed benchmarking now will be the winners, as they will be able to move their clients away from carriers who accept only 45% of claims before the next major market correction occurs. Ultimately, the industry will have to move away from a “price-first” mentality toward a “proven-outcome” model where an insurer’s track record of actually paying out becomes the primary selling point.
