Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had discussions with representatives from home insurance providers on the potential impact of trends in the price of insurance premiums on policyholders.

Insurers make commercial decisions about the terms, conditions or price that they set when offering insurance, informed by the insurer’s claims experience and other industry-wide statistics. The Government does not intervene in these commercial decisions by insurers as this could damage competition in the market.

However, the Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules. The FCA requires firms to ensure their products offer fair value (i.e. the price a consumer pays for a product or service is reasonable compared to the overall benefits they can expect to receive).

The FCA monitors firms to make sure they are providing products that are fair value and has robust powers to act against firms that fail to comply.