A new catch-all insurance product for parish councils has been launched by Ageas and independent broker Norris & Fisher, designed to protect all aspects of their property and responsibilities.
Insurance Business UK spoke to Cathy Taylor, head of commercial underwriting and operations at Ageas, about the new scheme. Taylor said she had previously worked with Norris & Fisher during her time at
Ecclesiastical Insurance and knew they were experienced in the field.
Parish councils serve around 16 million people in the UK.
“The biggest parish councils can have populations of up to 15,000, although most are under 3,000,” said Taylor. The smallest can have only around 100 people.
The new product being offered through Norris & Fisher is designed to cover the varied responsibilities parish councils hold.
“They’ve got all sorts of things they’ve got responsibility for, and what we try and do is protect them in their responsibilities,” said Taylor.
Taylor said policies will depend on the individual requirements of each council. Some may need cover for events and exhibitions, and property they are responsible for ranges from community halls and car-parks, to open spaces like burial grounds and commons.
Expertise was the reason Norris & Fisher was chosen by Ageas.
“One of the things about Ageas and the way we look at writing schemes business is the key part for us is choosing the right broker, and obviously we have to be happy in terms of risk appetite,” said Taylor. “What Norris and Fisher do is they know each of their clients really well, and they’re bespoke - they make sure they’ve got the right covers that they need, and the whole point of the scheme was to make sure we do a bit of a catch-all for them.”
Taylor said Ageas is keen to continue working in sectors similar to parish councils.
“We’ve got a really good professional experienced broker and they trust us to help,” she said. “We’ve worked together, come up with a perfect solution for parish councils and that would be the protection. I think it’s a really nice thing to do, and we’d like to do more protection for this sector as well.”
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