Many of you will be well aware of the problems facing organisations within the construction industry in obtaining professional indemnity (PI) insurance at a time when insurance companies are seeing our industry as a high-risk sector. In fact, some insurance companies have stopped offering PI insurance to the industry at all.

For many design consultants and contractors it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain PI insurance, and where it can be obtained fire safety exclusions have been introduced to the terms of cover while both the premium and the excess on each claim have risen exorbitantly.

Some architectural practices have seen premiums rise by 500% over the last three years and the expectation is that they will continue to rise over the next few years at least.

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