Housing association awards new-look insurance contract

Kingdom Housing Association Limited (KHA) and Kingdom Initiatives Limited (KIL), the wholly owned trading subsidiary of the Registered Social Landlord, have awarded a new general insurance contract to THIS Housing (Thistle Insurance Services Ltd, part of the JLT Group) for the next three years, plus a possible extension of two years until 2021.

The insurance cover put in place includes; property material damage (residential and commercial), employer liability, public liability, extension for KHA’s support and care activities, crime cover, professional indemnity, motor cover, computer hardware and software, office contents, group personal accident and all risks.

The tender was managed under the Public Contract Scotland Regulations 2012 through the Public Contracts Scotland website and KHA and KIL were supported by Maureen Batten, insurance and risk consultant with NHF Insurance Services in managing the tender.

The cover put in place represents a significant improvement in value for money for tenants of KHA and KIL as premiums have been reduced by approximately 30 per cent in comparison with the previous contract.

This represents a cost saving of almost £0.5 million in insurance premiums over the full five year term of the contract offsetting some of the unplanned cost of the recent rise in insurance premium tax. In addition to obtaining best value for money, our other objectives in this review were to ensure widest scope of cover for our risk exposures along with commitments to improved service delivery in the management of the policies and any claims management process.

The new arrangements will commence with effect from 1st October 2015 and run until 30th September 2018 as a minimum with a possibility of running to 31st March 2021.

Nick Pollard, director of finance and IT at KHA, said: “The award to THIS Housing is a significant change of insurer for KHA and KIL and we are pleased the procurement process delivered financial savings for our tenants but also commitments to service delivery, training, support and improvements to our wider risk management and we look forward to working with Marc and his team at THIS Housing.”

Marc Bates, national sales director of THIS Housing, added: “As a leading insurance broker to the social housing sector in Scotland we are delighted to add KHA to our growing number of social housing clients. Scotland has been an important area for THIS Housing for over 20 years and we very much look forward to working with Nick and the team at Kingdom.”