And we are seeing major changes to home insurance. If you live in an area at risk of flooding or are thinking about buying a property with flood history, have you heard of Flood Re? (Source: Flood Re)

It’s a government-backed scheme that helps households at higher risk of flooding access affordable insurance. It’s announced a new package of big reforms as it reaches its tenth anniversary. It’ll aim to help you become more flood-resilient and prepare for the scheme’s planned end in 2039.

What is changing?

One of the most immediate changes will benefit some lower-income households. From April 2027, Flood Re will reduce the premium it charges insurers for contents-only policies in Council Tax Bands A and B. Flood Re expects insurers to pass these savings on to customers. (Source: UK Parliament)

But the changes go beyond premiums. Flood Re is also developing Flood Performance Certificates, designed to work somewhat like Energy Performance Certificates. They could help homeowners understand how vulnerable their property is and make it more resilient. The aim is for improvements to a property’s flood resilience to be recognised through insurance pricing. (Source: Flood Re)

Why should homeowners care?

Flood insurance can be particularly important when you’re buying or remortgaging a property. If a property has a history of flooding or is considered at significant risk, finding suitable and affordable insurance can be more complicated. Flood Re has helped improve access to cover over the past decade.

Buying a home in a flood-risk area?

Don’t automatically assume that a flood-risk property is uninsurable – but don’t ignore the issue either.

Before buying, investigate the property’s flood history, understand what insurance is available, and find out whether measures could reduce the potential impact of future flooding. And if you’re already a homeowner, reviewing your buildings and contents insurance regularly is worthwhile. Check your sums insured, excesses and exclusions, and make sure you understand exactly what you’re covered for.

If you’re buying, remortgaging or simply unsure whether your home and insurance are still right for you, we’re here to help. Get in touch, and we can talk through your circumstances and point you towards the right questions to ask.

The post Flood Insurance is Changing appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

Now, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is taking a closer look at the later-life mortgage market. (Source: FCA)

In March, the FCA launched a market study into lifetime mortgages and retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgages, asking whether the market is meeting consumers’ changing needs and providing enough choice and competition. The study was updated in June following feedback from lenders, advisers and consumer groups.

The study is looking at more than just the products themselves. It will consider how consumers understand and compare their options, the role of advice, competition between providers and whether new or innovative products could better meet people’s needs.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution

One of the most important points is that later-life lending doesn’t automatically mean equity release. Depending on your circumstances, alternatives could include a standard mortgage, a RIO mortgage, a lifetime mortgage or downsizing. The FCA has specifically said it will consider how consumers compare these different ways of accessing housing wealth.

That’s why good advice matters. What works for one homeowner may be completely unsuitable for another.

What does this mean for you?

The FCA’s review is ongoing throughout 2026, so it is too early to say what changes may eventually result. But its focus reflects an important shift: borrowing in later life is becoming a more significant part of the mortgage market.

If you’re approaching retirement with a mortgage, thinking about accessing property wealth or simply wondering whether your current borrowing still suits your plans, it could be worth reviewing your options.

You don’t have to work out the answer on your own. Get in touch, and we can talk through your circumstances, explain the options available and help you understand what might – or might not – be right for you.

This is a lifetime mortgage. To understand the features and risks, please ask for a personalised illustration. Check that this mortgage will meet your needs if you want to move or sell your home or you want your family to inherit it. If you are in any doubt, seek independent advice.

The post Later-Life Mortgages Are Under the Microscope appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

It’s a question that’s easy to put off. But with the rules around Statutory Sick Pay changing this year, it’s a good time to think about what financial support you would have if your income suddenly stopped.

What has changed?

Since 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has been available to eligible employees regardless of how much they earn, and it is now payable from the first full day of sickness absence rather than after a waiting period. (Source: GOV.UK, Statutory Sick Pay guidance, updated April 2026.)

The weekly rate for 2026/27 is £123.25, or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. SSP can be paid for up to 28 weeks.

The changes mean more people can qualify for support and receive it sooner. But for many households, there’s still a substantial gap between statutory sick pay and their usual income.

Would £123.25 a week cover your essentials?

Think about your regular commitments: mortgage or rent, energy bills, food, childcare, transport, insurance and other household costs.

For someone earning a typical full-time salary, £123.25 a week represents a significant drop in income. Even if your employer offers enhanced sick pay, it’s worth checking how long it lasts and what happens once it ends.

This is where income protection can play a role.

Income protection is designed to provide a regular income if you are unable to work because of illness or injury, subject to the policy terms and any waiting period. It can be particularly worth considering if you have a mortgage, limited savings, dependants or an income that your household relies heavily on.

Don’t assume you’ll be covered

One of the most useful things you can do is check your existing safety net.

Ask yourself:

• How much sick pay does my employer provide?
• How long would it last?
• How many months could my savings cover?
• Could I continue paying my mortgage and essential bills if my income fell significantly?
• Would my household cope if I couldn’t work for several months?

There isn’t a single right answer. For some people, savings and generous employer benefits may provide sufficient protection. For others, income protection could provide an important additional layer of financial security.

If you’re not sure how you would manage financially if illness or injury stopped you working, we’re happy to help. Get in touch, and we can talk through your circumstances, what protection you already have and whether income protection could be worth considering.

The post Statutory Sick Pay Has Changed – But Would It Cover Your Bills? appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

However, we do have some helpful advice to help reduce your premium without giving up private healthcare altogether. The key is understanding the trade-offs.

We are always here to help; let’s explore these together and work out a policy that is perfect for you and your budget.

1. Ok, so one of the simplest ways to reduce your premium is to increase your policy excess. This is the amount you agree to contribute towards an eligible claim. A higher excess can mean a lower premium, but you’ll need to make sure you could comfortably afford the additional cost if you needed to claim.
2. Review your hospital list. Some insurers offer different levels of hospital access. Choosing a more restricted or guided hospital list can reduce your premium compared with a wider network. Before making a change, check which hospitals are included. If you have a preferred hospital locally, make sure it remains available under the new option.
3. Did you know that some policies allow you to consider a six-week NHS option, allowing you to opt for NHS treatment if available within six weeks? If not, your private cover steps in. It might suit you if you want the reassurance of private healthcare but are happy to use the NHS where treatment is available within a relatively short timeframe. However, six-week options are not always available, so we’ll double-check that for you.
4. We always run through with our clients to make sure they understand what their policy covers. It’s generally designed around acute conditions that are likely to respond to treatment. Most policies exclude pre-existing conditions, while chronic conditions requiring ongoing management, such as diabetes or asthma, are also generally excluded. You might save money removing options.
5. However! Don’t focus solely on price! The cheapest policy isn’t necessarily the best value. When reviewing your renewal, consider the balance between your premium, excess, hospital access and the level of cover you actually need.

If your premium has increased, reviewing your options could help you reduce the cost while keeping the private healthcare benefits that matter most to you.

We’ll help you assess the compromises and find a policy suited to you.

The post How to Lower the Cost of Private Medical Insurance appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

What does rent guarantee insurance do?

Rent guarantee insurance is designed to help protect landlords if a tenant stops paying their rent. Depending on the policy, it can also cover legal expenses to help with the costs of pursuing possession. This could become increasingly valuable if recovering possession takes longer. Average possession times have already reached 27 weeks, and landlords may face several months without rental income before Section 8 proceedings can begin. (Source: Mortgage Solutions)

Is it worth considering?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. For some landlords, having enough savings to cover several months of lost rental income may provide a sufficient safety net. For others, particularly those relying on rental income to meet their mortgage commitments, rent guarantee insurance could provide valuable additional protection.

Of course, the cheapest policy isn’t necessarily the most suitable. Before deciding, look carefully at the level of cover, excess, exclusions, and how claims are handled.

Don’t wait until there’s a problem

Landlords are already navigating a changing regulatory environment, and it’s understandable if you’re unsure what the latest changes mean for your property and finances. Now is the time to review your mortgage, rental income, and protection arrangements together. If you’d like to talk through your options, get in touch. We’re happy to help you understand what’s available and find a solution that works for your circumstances.

Get in touch

Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other debts secured on it.

The post Rent Guarantee: Why Landlords May Want to Review Their Protection appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

A Confusing Year for Drivers

On paper, 2025 looked like good news. The average motor premium fell for three to four consecutive quarters, dropping from a 2024 peak of around £635 to £559 by year-end [2][3]. By Q1 2026, the average sat at £560, roughly £20–30 lower than a year earlier [1].

But underneath that falling average, costs kept climbing. Insurers paid £2.9 billion in claims in Q1 2026 alone, with repairs eating up £1.9 billion, up 3% on the previous quarter. The average accidental damage claim reached £3,699, an 8% jump in a single quarter [1].

Why the Gap Exists

Modern cars are the biggest driver. Vehicles packed with sensors and driver-assistance tech are safer, but far more expensive to fix. A cracked bumper can now mean recalibrating a camera, not just a respray [1]. Add a shortage of skilled technicians and detected fraud costing the industry over £1 billion a year, and the upward pressure hasn’t gone away even as headline prices have fallen [1].

So how did premiums drop? Intense competition. With fewer people shopping around, insurers fought hard for those who were, pushing new-business prices down even as their claims bills grew [4], a dynamic that rewards switching and quietly penalises loyalty.

What This Means for You

This isn’t a sign insurance is getting cheaper overall. It’s a sign the market is far more competitive at switching than at renewal. If your policy has auto-renewed for a year or two, there’s a real chance you’re paying yesterday’s rate rather than today’s.

The post Did Your Car Insurance Renewal Quote Move the Way You Expected? appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

You may never have heard of it. It’s called a health cash plan, and the differences between plans matter more than most people realise. That’s exactly the kind of thing we help clients navigate, so if you’re curious whether one makes sense for you, get in touch, and we’ll walk through it together.

We’ve put together some FAQs to help you understand it all:

Q: What exactly is a health cash plan?

A: A health cash plan gives you money back on everyday healthcare costs: dental check-ups, eye tests, physiotherapy, and more, up to an annual allowance. You pay a monthly premium, then book treatment, pay for it, claim it, and get your money back.

Q: Is that like private medical insurance?

A: They work differently. PMI covers major medical events and typically pays providers directly. A cash plan covers the routine stuff, reimburses you after you’ve paid, and comes with a much lower premium, especially through an employer scheme [1]. Many clients end up holding both.

Q: How would I save money?

A: UK adults spend, on average, over £900 a year on costs like dental and optical care, according to the Office for National Statistics [1]. A cash plan is designed to help offset these costs, and premiums are often genuinely affordable. Many plans now bundle in virtual GP access and mental health support too.

Q: Who actually needs one?

Honestly, most people could benefit. For example, families with regular dental and optical costs, employees without one as a workplace benefit, or even some plans cover your PMI excess.

Q: How will I know if I’m paying for what I need?

A: This is where most people give up before finding the right plan. Pricing and benefit structures vary considerably between providers, and two plans priced almost identically can have very different annual limits [2]. The cheaper-looking option on paper could be the worst deal once you look closely.

That’s exactly the kind of detail that’s easy to miss when comparing plans alone, and where having someone who tracks the market day to day makes the difference. We see the fine print marketing pages don’t headline and know which plans genuinely fit a given circumstance rather than just looking good on price.

Let’s Have a Conversation…

For the price of a coffee or two a month, a health care cash plan can meaningfully cut your everyday healthcare spend. Because the market has real variation, it’s worth comparing with someone who knows it inside out, rather than guessing. For impartial advice on what’s right for you, your family, or your business, get in touch. That’s exactly what we’re here for.

The post Have You Heard of a Health Cash Plan? appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

Across the year, that added up to £7.84 billion [1]. If you’ve ever wondered whether protection insurance is “worth it,” this is the number that answers the question. If you don’t already have cover in place, or haven’t reviewed it in a while, get in touch. It’s a conversation worth having before you need it, not after.

The Numbers Behind the Headline:

• New data from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Group Risk Development (GRiD) shows individual protection claims alone totalled £5.15 billion in 2025.
• Insurers paid out an extraordinary 97.9% of all individual claims, a figure that has held above that level for more than a decade.
• Critical illness claims topped £1 billion for the fifth year running, with the average payout reaching £67,000, nearly two-thirds of those claims were for cancer.
• Income protection claims hit a record £209 million, and crucially, 7,600 people were able to return to work last year.
• Perhaps most telling of all: nearly one in five income protection claims were for mental health conditions, a reminder that protection isn’t only about physical illness [1].

Why This Matters to You:

It’s easy to think of protection insurance as something you pay into and hope never to use. But behind every one of those figures is a family whose mortgage got paid, whose income kept coming in, or who didn’t have to worry about money while dealing with something far more important.

Let’s Talk:

Whether you’ve got existing cover that needs a health check, or you’ve never looked at protection insurance before, now is a good time to start. Reach out today, and we’ll walk through your options together, no pressure, no jargon, just clarity on what’s right for you and your family.

The post £7.84 Billion Reasons to Talk About Protection appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

• The NHS worker who kept his promise to his daughter

When Andy Payne lost his wife to cancer, he cut his hours as an NHS theatre practitioner to raise their daughter alone, determined not to let her lose him to work too. Nearly two decades later, at 62, his interest-only mortgage matured, and he was £40,000 short. A lifetime mortgage meant he didn’t have to sell up or move away. He now makes voluntary repayments to keep the balance in check, and his daughter is grown and thriving in her own career.

• The mum who helped her daughter open a bakery abroad

A retired woman in Surrey had already helped one of her daughters buy her first home. When her other daughter dreamed of opening a micro-bakery in New Zealand, she released £400,000 from her property to gift her. It meant watching her daughter start a new life, and, as a bonus, gifting the money now rather than through her estate reduced the family’s future inheritance tax bill.

• The former vet who protected his children’s inheritance

He’d bought his London home in the 1970s for £32,000. Decades later, with little pension to show for his career as a self-employed vet, equity release let him clear his mortgage, boost his retirement income, and reduce the inheritance tax bill his children would eventually face, all while staying in the family home near them.

None of these people used equity release as a last resort out of desperation. Each made a deliberate choice: to keep a promise, help the next generation, protect an inheritance, or stay somewhere they loved. That’s what good later life lending advice looks like, not a rescue plan, but a tool that opens up options.

If you’re wondering whether releasing value from your home could help with a mortgage, a gift, a care cost, or simply staying put for longer, we’d be glad to talk it through, no obligation, no pressure.

The post Real Stories of Later Life Lending appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.

Santander’s quarterly Broker Perception Barometer, a survey of 500 mortgage customers, found that nearly two-thirds of borrowers say they simply could not have gone through the homebuying or remortgage process without a broker, and this is now the third consecutive quarter the figure has landed in that range [1][2]. It’s a striking number in an era when digital-first alternatives are supposedly meant to be replacing traditional advice.

Why now? The report points to three forces converging on borrowers’ decision-making: rising prices, ongoing uncertainty over the path of interest rates, and, more unusually, the distraction of a major football tournament this summer [1][3]. Despite the World Cup dominating attention, the research found broker relationships have stayed remarkably resilient.

According to the Broker Perception Barometer, most borrowers said they would still expect their broker to reach out during a match if advice was needed, and around a quarter said they’d rather focus on their finances than the football. We’d love to hear from our customers… did the World Cup sway your financial planning?

The numbers behind why brokers remain indispensable are compelling. Most customers, 84%, said brokers gave them a sense of security in a shifting market, and nearly three-quarters said using a broker gave them greater confidence in their financial decisions [1][2]. On the practical side, most borrowers who bought, remortgaged or transferred products in the past year reported saving money by going through a broker, with average monthly savings running into the hundreds of pounds annually [2][5].

Even with digital mortgage tools becoming more common, most borrowers said they’d still choose a human broker over AI at every stage of the process [2][5].

Markets move, headlines change, and this summer has brought its share of distractions, from interest rate speculation to football fever. But the research is a reminder that in complex, high-stakes financial decisions, expert human advice isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what most people say they genuinely cannot do without.

If you’re weighing up a house purchase, a remortgage, or simply want a second opinion on your options, we’d love to help. Get in touch with our team today for clear, human advice you can trust, no jargon, no pressure, just honest guidance tailored to your circumstances.

The post Why Two-Thirds of Homeowners Say They Couldn’t Have Done It Without a Broker appeared first on Steeples Mortgage Services.