State of the market

In 20 years brokers have moved from being king to a bit player in a UK personal lines market, which, including Lloyd's and offshore players, is worth about £20bn. Of this, about half is private motor with the remainder covering household, travel, legal expenses, pet and special schemes.

The private car account, which stands at about £10bn, has shown no real growth since the end of 2002 after it grew 25% during the harder markets of 2000 to 2002 then levelled off. However, it managed to over