Climate crisis helped drive payouts to seven-year high, say insurers
Britain's largest insurance firms have warned that the climate crisis has contributed to driving up insurance payouts to the highest level in seven years, after a sharp rise in damage to households and businesses from weather events.
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Extreme weather events around the world have been increasing in severity and regularity in recent years, costing insurers billions of pounds and undermining the resilience of the global economy. Last month, Hurricane Beryl smashed through the Caribbean, devastating entire islands before hitting the southern United States, with a cost to communities and insurers worth billions of dollars.
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Last year, UK insurers paid out a record £573m in weather-related claims, £150m more than in 2022. The average weather-related payout was nearly £5,000 in 2023, compared with a little over £3,000 the year before.
This year, total payouts are on track to exceed last year's figure of £4.9bn, more than £2.7bn of which has already been paid out. The average annual cost of home insurance also rose to £396, up 6% on the first quarter.
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