New figures reveal steep rise in home insurance claims

An insurance provider has estimated that the industry has received nearly 16,000 home insurance claims linked to water damage since the beginning of December's cold snap.

Sainsburys Home Insurance has estimated the value of these claims to be around £35.21 million and the company has attributed many to the sub-zero temperatures.

Ben Tyte, Sainsbury's Home Insurance manager, revealed that this year's figures are much greater than those witnessed during the cold snap of the previous winter.

Temperatures have dropped to as low as -22 degrees C at night in some parts of the UK and with more cold weather predicted, we expect to see more claims linked to water damage, he said.

Meanwhile, new research has revealed that retailers reported the worst sales growth figures last month in 15 years.

The British Retail Consortium said the value of property retail sales in January rose by just 1.2 per cent.