News

Seventeen Group has acquired Westscott Insurance Brokers Limited of Dumfries for an undisclosed sum on the 24th March 2017. ‘Westscott’ was established in 1973 and controls circa £2.5 million Gross Written Premium, split 75% Commercial and 25% Personal Lines. The business will be integrated into Seventeen Group’s broking subsidiary James Hallam Limited, which already has a presence in Dumfries under the Annandale brand, which was acquired in March 2016. Sandra Murphy, who joined Westscott in 1997, joins the James Hallam team in Scotland and will focus on client servicing within the new structure.

Seventeen Group is a privately owned insurance Group, which includes James Hallam Insurance Brokers, Touchstone Underwriting and 4Sight Risk Management.

Paul Anscombe, Chief Executive Officer of Seventeen Group comments, “Westscott is very well known to our Annandale team and it was felt to be a ‘perfect fit’ by both Companies in terms of culture and location. We have plans to grow in Dumfries and have a fantastic team now to build upon for the future. We will also seek to roll out our apprenticeship scheme in order to support the local Dumfries community”.

Insurance Age invited Seventeen Group CEO  Paul Anscombe for a Christmas Q&A. Click here to read all about it.

The new chancellor Phillip Hammond has announced a rise in insurance premium tax from 10% to 12% and this will take effect from June 2017.

This is the third increase to the rate of IPT in less than 2 years and affects general insurance policies including private medical insurance. Travel Insurance IPT will remain at 20%.

It is worth noting that insurance premium tax in the UK is still lower than many other European countries and half the rate of VAT so expect further increases in the future as the Government clearly see IPT as a significant revenue generator for them going forward.

Our view is that increased IPT is bad for the UK economy as increased tax can result in some individuals or companies being tempted to under-insure or even non-insure.

We are proud to be sponsoring the Springboard Awards for Excellence 2016 on 24 November. Sanjay, Jackie and I are looking forward to welcoming our guests on the night. These include Martin Johnstone (Lester Hotels), Paul Fuykschot (The Stafford), Ruth Hansom (The Ritz), Gary King (Collins King), Dominika Kurowska (Harbour and Jones), Jeff Walker and Jason Leist (NIG).

The second Essex Business Briefings took place on 20th October, a series of business forums in association with INVEST Essex, Lambert Smith Hampton, Rickard Luckin and Wortley Byers Law.

The Essex Business Briefings aim to equip local businesses with information pertinent to the running of their organisations. This season continued with the theme of Innovation and how to transform organisations, helping them to deliver the best service.

Guest speakers from The Ideas Group, NatWest and Flakt Woods discussed their experience of managing innovation by unleashing the creativity within their workforce this was followed by a Q&A session which stimulated much thought amongst a full house of delegates.