Good value car insurance 'is available for motorists'

The chair of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) has stated that the car insurance market offers a variety of good value and cost-effective options to motorists.

As policyholders of performance or even modified car insurance may know, the variety of financial products available to people is broad and wide-ranging, according to executive director of PACTS Robert Gifford.

However, he added that car insurance can still "feel like one of those things that [people] have to take out, rather than [people wanting] to".

Mr Gifford also claimed that behind the many reasons why some motorists fail to take out insurance, a "core" of drivers assume that the actual fine for not having a policy will be less than the cost of insurance itself.

"I think the question will always be whether the driver thinks it is worth that much money in the first place," he said.

On September 12th, the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) issued research revealing that despite the number of people without motor insurance dropping by 25 per cent in the last five years, incidences of uninsured driving continued thanks to certain areas of the country where the practice is more prevalent.

The MIB revealed these hotspots to be located mainly in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire regions where 17 of the worst 20 postcodes were located.

Levels in these areas were as much as eight times the national average, inadvertently increasing insurance costs for people as compensation from the providers fills the gaps in payouts.

Ashton West, the MIB's chief executive, said that the industry was determined to work with the police - who have so far removed more than 750,000 uninsured vehicles from Britain's streets - in order to keep costs down, "otherwise the honest motorist will keep paying the bills for the injury and damage caused to people and property".