The Association of British Insurers has published a report arguing that commercial insurance is a growth engine the government is significantly underusing - and that by engaging the sector earlier in major infrastructure projects, and creating a more proportionate regulatory environment, the UK can unlock material economic and resilience benefits.
The report, The Value of Commercial Insurance: Enabling growth, innovation, and resilience, draws on case studies from ABI members to show how commercial cover makes projects happen that would otherwise stall: net zero infrastructure in Teesside and Liverpool Bay, cover for Tower Bridge and National Trust properties, event insurance for major festivals, and risk transfer across supply chains that protects thousands of jobs.
The policy ask to government is clear: involve insurers earlier in major infrastructure planning and build a regulatory environment that rewards the sector's risk management expertise. The reason that has not already happened is structural - government procurement and project financing typically treat insurance as a late-stage cost item rather than a front-end risk management input. Bringing insurers in at the planning stage, as the ABI recommends, requires a cultural shift in how Whitehall commissions major projects. That is a harder ask than it sounds.
Chris Bose, director of general insurance at the ABI, framed the opportunity. "From helping businesses recover from disruption, to supporting tech innovation and enabling major infrastructure, the UK is home to one of the world's leading commercial insurance markets," he said. "As the new government looks to drive growth and embed resilience across the country, there's a real opportunity to make greater use of the expertise our sector has to offer."
The ABI's report is aimed at government. But the argument it makes is one commercial brokers have been under-deploying in client conversations for years.
The Teesside sustainability case study is worth developing. The ABI's report describes how commercial insurers are playing a vital role in the delivery of net zero projects in Teesside and Liverpool Bay - from planning through to long-term operations - supporting thousands of local jobs and building investor confidence. What that means in practice is that risk transfer is the mechanism that makes lenders and equity investors willing to commit capital to projects that carry novel technology, construction, and operational risks. Without insurance, the financing does not close.
That is not a marginal point about cost - it is the structural argument for why cover exists at all.
The same logic applies at every scale. A festival promoter cannot commit to venue bookings, artist contracts, and production costs without event cancellation cover in place. A manufacturer cannot accept a major supply chain contract without adequate business interruption limits. An SME taking on its first significant commercial lease cannot do so without appropriate buildings and liability cover in place. In each case, insurance is not the cost of doing business - it is what makes the decision to do business possible.
That framing matters most right now because the market is making it harder to deploy. UK commercial insurance rates fell 8% in Q2 2026, the eighth consecutive quarterly decline, according to Marsh's Global Insurance Market Index. When premiums are falling, clients treat renewal as a procurement exercise. The value conversation - insurance as the enabler of investment and growth, not a line item to minimise - is the one that protects both the client and the broker relationship through a soft market.
Cyber insurance is named explicitly in the report as one of the ways commercial insurers help businesses of all sizes build resilience. The ABI's January 2026 SME underinsurance report - which drew on a survey of 1,002 SME decision-makers - found significant gaps in SME cyber coverage specifically. That underinsurance leaves businesses exposed in precisely the scenarios where a broker's guidance would have made the difference.
For commercial brokers, the new report and the January underinsurance data work as a two-part toolkit. Use the macro framing - insurance as the engine of growth and resilience, validated by an ABI report complete with infrastructure case studies - to open the conversation. Use the SME underinsurance data to close it, demonstrating where specific gaps in cover leave the client exposed.
The first establishes why cover matters; the second establishes where the client's current position falls short.
In a soft market, the broker who talks about value retains the relationship. The broker who only talks about price is competing with a comparison website.
