Insurance Penetration holding in 2025, with 80% of households insured

In April of 2025, Flood Re undertook a survey to determine insurance penetration among UK households. Using the Focaldata platform, 2,093 responses to the survey were obtained from a demographically and geographically representative sample of the UK, which found that:

• 80% of households currently have home insurance:
  • 95% of owner-occupiers
  • 57% of private renters
  • 48% of social renters
• Penetration was highest in Southeast and Northwest England (84% each) and Yorkshire/Humber (85%), and lowest in London (70%), Wales (69%) and Northern Ireland
• Penetration increased with age, with 90% of those over 65, but only 59% of those 18-24, having insurance
• Of those without home insurance, half had never had it, whereas others had ceased purchasing at various times from less than a year to more than 5 years. 
• Reasons for not having insurance overwhelmingly centered on cost and value, with roughly half viewing it as too expensive, another quarter not seeing value in it, and those providing free text answers largely stating that they felt they didn’t need it.

The full survey results can be found here.

The last prior surveys were as part of an early 2022 follow-up to the 2020 independent review of floods in Doncaster, which found that roughly 91% of owner occupiers and 57% of renters had combined buildings & contents insurance.

As part of our work leading an Action Group on insurance as part of the Flood Resilience Task Force, we felt it was important to have a sense of whether a significant insurance gap existed or had widened. Particularly given the experience of recent years, with significant increases in the price of insurance through 2023 and 2024, it was important to know whether penetration may have declined, and whether particular groups may have been affected.

The 2025 survey shows that overall penetration has been maintained in recent years. Among owner-occupiers, penetration may have actually increased. However, among renters, penetration may have decreased, as the overall average of renters would be about 53%. Since concerns about affordability (as well as a perception that insurance isn’t needed for rental properties) are the drivers for those choosing not to purchase insurance, this points to the need to work with both renters and lower-income groups to maintain insurance coverage. While many landlords will have taken out buildings coverage, tenants are typically responsible for contents coverage, and are eligible given their properties are built prior to 2009.

None of the findings in the survey will be surprising to most observers, reflecting well-known dynamics such as young people rarely taking out insurance, and lower penetration in areas like London where proportions of rented accommodation are higher, though the Welsh and NI penetration rates are among the most notable outliers. The fact that overall penetration rates are holding up is probably the most important conclusion, showing that the UK continues to maintain one of the highest rates of household insurance penetration.