A burst pipe on a half-finished residential block. A stolen generator that halts a site for a week. These are the two costliest, most predictable risks in UK construction – and how an insurer handles them is what increasingly separates the best insurance companies for construction in the UK from the rest of the market.

Escape of water remains the biggest single cause of loss for UK construction insurers. Insurers pay out an estimated £1.8 million a day UK-wide on escape of water claims, according to the Association of British Insurers’ guidance on burst pipes and water leaks. Construction sites are particularly exposed during the testing and commissioning of new buildings, when pipework that has passed pressure testing can still fail in practice. As Trevor Chainey, UK construction lead at RSA Insurance, explains in RSA Insurance’s analysis of escape of water risk in construction, the most common problems relate to “defective and poorly fitted pipework and bad testing regimes”.

Tool and plant theft is the other perennial drain on UK contractors of all sizes. Allianz Insurance’s guidance on reducing plant theft risk reports an 80% rise in enquiries relating to stolen plant machinery over a recent 12-month period and states that thefts from UK construction sites cost the industry well over £800 million a year. That scale of loss is exactly why QBE’s approach of mining its own claims data for theft hotspots – rather than reacting after the fact – matters to the brokers who nominated it, and it’s a growing focus among the best construction insurance providers in the UK more broadly.

“Brokers are watching the same pressure from their side of the transaction. Plant and equipment cover, including hired-in plant, is a growing priority for construction clients as equipment values rise and theft remains a significant problem,” says Tim Pope, senior construction and infrastructure executive at Jensten.

Underinsurance compounds both risks. As material and labour costs continue to climb, sums insured agreed even a year or two ago can fall well short of true rebuild value. The BCIS House Rebuilding Cost Index methodology and data rose 3.8% in the year to December 2025, while the BCIS’s own construction outlook update confirms its Labour Cost Index jumped 7.1% in the second quarter of 2025 alone – meaning a project insured against last year’s costs may already be underinsured before a shovel hits the ground.

This year’s 5-Star Construction winners were determined through broker nominations, continuing the same methodology behind last year’s Best Insurance Companies for Construction in the UK report. IBUK invited brokers across the country to name the construction insurers they had worked with directly, and only those receiving a sufficient volume of nominations were invited to submit further evidence of their capabilities. That evidence was then weighed against broker ratings on underwriting expertise, claims service and overall reliability – reinforcing the same substance-over-price theme that runs through this report on the best insurance companies for construction in the UK.

For the brokers placing this business, the calculus behind recommending one insurer over another has shifted well past price. “The priorities have certainly shifted beyond simply finding the cheapest premium and rather now value for money,” says Pope of Jensten, who points to a widening list of coverage priorities for 2026 – comprehensive contract works cover with inflation-linked sums insured to guard against underinsurance, plant and equipment cover extending to hired-in plant, cyber cover for construction businesses using digital project management and connected site technology and environmental liability extensions for infrastructure and remediation projects. 

Oscar Francis, Certificate in Insurance (Cert CII), team manager for construction at James Hallam, frames the same shift around breadth of cover rather than referral friction. Using underpinning work as an example, he describes two similarly priced policies where one insurer requires every project to be referred for approval before work begins and the other does not: brokers and clients consistently favour the insurer without the referral requirement, even at a slightly higher premium. “The time that it takes to refer a risk could result in a lost opportunity for the contractor,” he says. 

“Claims processes are reputational and can enhance or demise a broker’s reputation,” Francis adds, noting that poor claims handling can also create cashflow and liquidity problems serious enough to contribute to a contractor’s insolvency – which is why James Hallam continually reviews the claims performance of the insurers it trades with against its own key performance indicators. Pope goes further still: an insurer that settles legitimate claims promptly “is often worth paying a higher premium for,” while a cheaper policy “loses its value if a client waits months for funds needed to replace equipment or restart work.” 

Risk mitigation support is moving from a nice-to-have to a genuine differentiator. Francis says the business that can evidence proactive risk management “is worthy of a more competitive premium than a business that cannot,” a dynamic he describes as a win-win, since prevention lowers claims costs for insurers and premiums for clients. Pope singles out site fire risk assessments, guidance on lithium battery charging and storage (“increasingly becoming more common” on sites), security reviews for high-value plant and cyber security penetration testing as services now shaping which insurers brokers put in front of clients. 

Tailoring cover for complex or large-scale projects matters just as much. Asked how far this shapes his recommendations, Francis answers in a word: “Significantly.” Pope calls it “absolutely critical,” pointing to bespoke wordings, extended indemnity periods and cover for multiple insured parties that his brokerage has already agreed with a range of insurers. 

Pope wants faster underwriting decisions, greater commercial authority handed to experienced underwriters, simpler policy wording and quicker mid-term adjustments. Francis’s list echoes several of the same points: an unencumbered claims process, faster policy documentation and fewer policy endorsements. “Balance is key,” he says.

QBE has built its reputation as one of the leading construction insurance providers in the UK around a straightforward premise: insight and partnership matter as much as the policy wording itself. Recognised in this year’s 5-Star Construction, the firm’s construction practice combines technical underwriting depth with a claims and risk management model built specifically around the sector’s recurring pain points.

That culture starts at the top. QBE describes its identity as one built around partnership, expertise and long-term vision, working alongside customers to really understand their businesses and challenges rather than simply pricing risk from a distance. The insurer credits its leadership team with driving a strategic and consistent approach to construction, underpinned by technical excellence and strong customer relationships, with underwriting, claims and risk teams working hand-in-hand to track sector-specific developments – from ESG measurement through to contractual and regulatory complexity.

That joined-up approach shows most clearly in how QBE structures cover and support. Its Contractors Combined policy includes a number of enhancements as standard: a non-negligence liability provisional cover extension to £1 million, a 24-month maintenance period and no hazardous works restrictions on height or depth. On the claims side, the firm says its specialist construction claims team is built to deliver fast, customised responses for urgent decisions, operating what it calls a before/during/after claims model with clear protocols and strategic recovery planning – with a dedicated claims relationship team ensuring larger customers are kept informed at every stage.
 

“We provide transparency, consistency and a single point of contact across underwriting, claims and risk to ensure seamless delivery”
Tim BluckQBE

Underwriting expertise is framed in similarly hands-on terms. QBE’s underwriters bring deep understanding and sector experience, working closely with claims and risk colleagues on complex contractual decisions, and staying alert to how new construction methods, materials and technology – from robotics to unmanned aerial vehicles – are reshaping the risks contractors face. For access to specialist support beyond the policy itself, the firm maintains a hand-picked panel of risk mitigation partners spanning fire, water, mental health and cyber risk, each selected, the insurer says, because “they’re the best at what they do.”

Tool and equipment theft has become a growing drain on contractors’ time and money, and QBE’s approach leans on data rather than guesswork. Asked directly about balancing theft mitigation against rising security costs, the firm points to its risk solutions team’s ongoing review of claims data to identify trends and hotspots, using that intelligence to advise customers on measures ranging from improved lighting and site security to asset tagging and tracking technology – alongside security management reviews carried out with specialist partners. The goal, the insurer stresses, isn’t to push more security spend for its own sake, but to help customers choose the tools and strategies that genuinely maximise ROI and resilience.

Looking ahead, QBE says its focus remains on supporting contractors’ annual cross-class programs, with particular strength in mid-sized contractors and subcontractors through its Contractors Combined product, while continuing to build capacity for large infrastructure and project-specific placement needs. On how it balances listening to the market against developing solutions independently, the firm describes its approach as “co-creative: market-led, but QBE-shaped” – engaging regularly with brokers and customers through webinars, events and trade media while also driving proprietary innovation such as its Minds in Business mental health assessment tool, developed directly in response to trends its construction customers were experiencing on the ground.

Q: What’s been the most important strategy QBE has undertaken in the past few years?

A: The integration of claims, underwriting risk management and client management into a unified customer-centric system has allowed us to deliver meaningful insight into our customers’ total cost of risk. From there, QBE has been able to respond and engage proactively with risk solutions and claims relationship management that help our customers prepare and protect their businesses and reduce the frequency and severity of potential losses.

Q: What have been the largest challenges facing the industry this year, and how has QBE addressed them?

A: The construction sector continues to grapple with several systemic and emerging challenges, including inflationary pressures on materials and labour, trade and supply chain uncertainty, increasing regulatory compliance, climate-related risks and a continuing skills shortage. We’ve supported customers through these challenges by enhancing access to sector-specific risk insights and tools.

Q: How does QBE’s online platform support brokers and clients?

A: Our easy-to-use QRisk portal offers clients a digital hub for risk management materials, self-assessments, eLearning modules and tracking tools. It is free for all QBE business insurance customers and includes liability self-assessments, the Minds in Business wellbeing tool and a dedicated risk culture profiling framework.

Q: How is QBE using technology to support customers in the field?

A: In claims, we use data analytics to identify causes, improve risk solutions and reduce the overall cost of risk. For example, the QBE Return+ rehabilitation program, which enables early intervention for injured workers, is underpinned by digital case tracking and helps businesses avoid excess work-related injury absence.

AXA’s entry into single-project construction insurance is a relatively recent one, but it has moved quickly. “In late 2023, we decided this was something we wanted to do as part of our strategy,” says Matthew Briggs, UK technical director for commercial property, construction and risk management at AXA. AXA had always maintained a significant presence in annual contractors’ business but was, in his words, “quite light” on specialist single-project cover, writing only a handful each year.

The turnaround came down to people before product. AXA initially brought in two specialists in London and one in Birmingham, later adding a further London hire and, most recently, a Manchester-based underwriter. “That has been the biggest thing we really, really got right – getting the people right,” Briggs says. Rather than generalists, AXA deliberately recruited specialists in the single-project construction market specifically, valuing not just technical capability but the right relationships in what Briggs describes as “quite a tight little market” where speaking the right language matters as much as underwriting skill. The team began trading in August 2024, with the remainder of that year serving as what Briggs calls a “warming-up period” to onboard the new hires before AXA built out its product proposition around their collective expertise.

Escape of water, unsurprisingly, tops AXA’s own claims data too. “Escape of water is probably the biggest cause of loss,” Briggs explains. “You build a residential building or an office building... and then the first time you test and commission, you put the water on, and you find it doesn’t all perform perhaps as well as you’d hoped.”

Rigorous pressure testing by lead contractors hasn’t eliminated the problem, and AXA has also paid out on rarer but larger losses – including one civil engineering claim involving a failed tarmac surface that required full resurfacing, despite civil engineering forming only a small part of AXA’s book. To manage claims of varying complexity, the firm runs two dedicated teams: a high-volume unit in Bolton for routine losses and a large and complex loss team in Ipswich for its biggest and most technically demanding claims. Where possible, it also accommodates a customer’s own nominated loss adjuster, provided they come from one of the main firms, to preserve continuity when a claim does arise.

Geographically, AXA’s construction proposition is deliberately two-pronged. London remains its largest single distribution centre, with many regional projects still wholesaled in due to the concentration of specialist expertise there – but Briggs says AXA is actively building out branch-level capability so that brokers in cities like Leeds, Bristol, Glasgow, Southampton and Reading can access the same specialist cover locally rather than routing business through the capital. Leeds, in particular, has seen a surge of activity, driven largely by student accommodation development linked to the University of Leeds.

• specialist underwriting hubs: London, Birmingham and Manchester
   

• newer regional broker access: Leeds, Bristol, Glasgow, Southampton and Reading – Leeds driven largely by student accommodation development
   

• claims handling: Bolton (high-volume, routine losses) and Ipswich (large and complex claims)

“It’s enabled us to grow and get involved in a much more interesting market that we weren’t previously involved in and bring the AXA brand and financial security to a whole new raft of customers”
Matthew BriggsAXA

Briggs is candid that AXA isn’t trying to undercut the market on price. “I think AXA comes in probably too much to say we’re a disruptor – we’re probably not a disruptor,” he says. “Our proposition is reasonably mainstream, as you would expect from a large composite insurer like AXA. But I think we’ve done a lot of things in combination very well... it comes back to relationships.” He points to the calibre of the underwriters AXA has hired, their integration with the insurer’s regional sales teams, and the firm’s existing brand strength with brokers as the real differentiators – with competitive pricing sitting alongside those factors rather than replacing them.

That proposition is backed by real scale: AXA’s total capacity for contractors’ all risks and existing structures cover runs up to around £150 million per project, across as many as 100 projects. In practice, most of what the team actually writes sits well below that ceiling – as the Q&A below makes clear.

Q: What has surprised you most since AXA entered the single-project construction market?

A: I think it’s bigger at the lower end. I think we thought there would be a handful of major projects we could get involved in, but I think we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of small to mid-sized projects that are out there that want to come and work with us at AXA... that’s probably been between 15 and 30 million [pounds], and that’s been the bread and butter business really that we’ve done very, very well from.

Q: What’s been the biggest learning curve for AXA in this market?

A: I think the risk engineering piece has been key. I think perhaps initially a little bit of an afterthought, but actually, we had quite a lot of existing risk engineering expertise from the annual contractors’ book that we’ve always had, and it’s been great that we’ve been able to work with our risk engineers as well to build their expertise in this area.

Q: How is AXA expanding its reach beyond London?

A: A lot of brokers don’t have access to those specialist markets unless they wholesale them into somewhere like London. So the idea is to build out the general AXA brand and proposition... and bring this capability closer to those local brokers, so it can be more widely accessed.

As the UK construction sector works through its uneven 2026 recovery, both QBE and AXA are positioning for continued growth rather than retrenchment. QBE points to renewed policy focus on infrastructure and housing delivery as an opportunity to support its existing contractor relationships at scale, while AXA is actively building out regional capability so that brokers outside London and Manchester can access specialist construction cover without wholesaling business into the capital.

QBE is explicit about where that growth will come from. Asked how it plans to capitalise on the government’s building ambitions, the insurer says, “QBE welcomes renewed policy focus on construction and infrastructure. As a long-term partner to many of the UK’s primary contractors, we are well-positioned to support the construction sector’s ambitions and plans for housing, transport and energy development.” Its deep knowledge of “the commercial realities and contractual structures of major projects” is, it says, what will let it help clients navigate procurement and funding programmes as they scale up through 2026 – leaning on existing relationships with major contractors rather than chasing new business on price.

AXA’s own plans point in a similar direction: deepening rather than diversifying. “We plan to keep building out that Champions Network internally, and we will bring on some additional experts as well,” Briggs says, with London earmarked for further hires specifically. The bigger opportunity, he suggests, sits with brokers who haven’t used AXA’s construction proposition yet: “There are a lot of brokers that don’t use us. There’s a good opportunity to keep working away at those and getting the story out there that AXA has got a really strong proposition in this space.” That mirrors a pattern visible across this year’s winners more broadly: growth through depth in an existing specialism, not expansion into adjacent lines.

That focus on depth over expansion matters more, not less, as broader conditions tighten. S&P Global Ratings has forecast further UK property and casualty profitability pressure through 2026 as claims inflation continues to bite, while Arcadis’s most recent data shows the construction recovery itself remains fragile rather than a straight line, with infrastructure activity softening alongside housing in early 2026. Neither dynamic rewards insurers chasing volume on price. Both instead reward the insurers whose claims and risk engineering capability was built for exactly this kind of market – one where showing up reliably matters more than quoting the lowest premium.

That pattern isn’t new for this report either – it shows up in last year’s reveal of the UK’s top construction insurers too, where consistency of service outweighed price competitiveness among winning insurers. If anything, this year’s market conditions make that precedent more relevant, not less.

What marks out 2026’s 5-Star Construction winners from the rest of the market is not a lower premium but a demonstrated willingness to invest in the parts of the business that only matter when something goes wrong. Across this year’s market-leading construction insurers, five distinct patterns emerge that define the best insurance companies for construction in the UK.

Market-leading construction insurers structure their claims operations around loss complexity rather than a single generic process, typically running a model that separates routine claims from large or complex losses, with each handled by a team built for that level of difficulty. None of these insurers treat claims handling as a cost centre to minimise – it is treated as the point of the product.

The leading names in UK construction insurance review their own claims data to identify emerging risks – from theft hotspots to recurring causes of loss – and feed that intelligence back to customers before a loss occurs, not only after one. This claims-to-underwriting feedback loop, described earlier in this report, is what increasingly distinguishes the insurers brokers rate most highly: they use their own loss history to get ahead of the next claim, not just settle the last one.

The strongest construction propositions in the market did not emerge by accident. They are typically built by hiring genuine sector specialists first and shaping the product and underwriting approach around that expertise, rather than applying generic commercial terms to construction accounts. That sequencing – people before product – is what gives these insurers credibility with brokers working on complex or high-value risk.

A recurring theme among this year’s winners is investment in regional branch capability, extending specialist underwriting access beyond London and other major hubs. Brokers outside the largest cities increasingly expect direct access to specialist construction underwriters rather than having to wholesale business into the capital, and insurers solving for that distribution gap are removing friction that has historically pushed regional brokers towards a narrower set of markets.

In a market where new, cut-price entrants have raised sustainability concerns among commentators, the insurers brokers keep coming back to are rarely the cheapest quote in the room. They are betting instead that brokers will keep placing business with insurers who can demonstrate they will still be there – with the same claims team, the same risk engineering support and the same appetite – at the next renewal and the one after that.

Taken together, these five patterns point to the same conclusion: in UK construction insurance, the best insurance companies for construction in the UK are increasingly defined by what they do before and after a claim, not by what they charge for the policy in between.

Best Insurance Companies for Construction in the UK | 5-Star Construction

• 
  AXA
   
  
• 
  QBE
   
  

• Allianz
• Aspen/Sompo
• Aviva
• Axis
• Chubb
• CNA
• Dual
• Intact
• Munich Re Specialty
• Tokio Marine HCC
• Zurich