Inflated road repair costs drive up car insurance prices Car News

A spokesperson for Amey said the repair work he had carried out was different both in scope and time from that envisaged by the government-appointed quantity surveyor. “Amey rigorously ensures that it always offers good value for money by maintaining the road network at a high level of safety,” they added.

Claims issued by National Roads or local authorities to recover the cost of repair work following an accident involving a third party are called green claims. In the year to March 2021, National Highways recovered £15.5million in green claims from third parties. Critics accuse contractors working for National Highways and its predecessors of inflating the value of many of these claims. It’s a practice they say has been going on for years.

During a debate in the House of Lords in 2017, the Earl of Lytton, a chartered surveyor, said overcharging was commonplace.

‘Highways England contractors apparently have no objection to submitting inflated green claims for damage to road infrastructure caused in road traffic accidents,’ he said. “These increase insurance costs and seem [exceed] contractual arrangements with Highways England, and yet nothing seems to be done about them.

In the same year, CMA estimated that green claims had been inflated by a total of £10 million over the previous three years. At the time, he had just won a court ruling against Kier Highways, a contractor, whom he accused of submitting to his insurer client a higher cost claim than he would normally have charged Highways England , including £70 an hour for “asset related incident”. guards” rather than the £25 charged to Highways England for the same service.