August 2026

This month's roundup covers a lot of ground, because there's a lot happening!

We start with what the country's new Prime Minister could mean for your mortgage and cover, before looking at fresh research showing two-thirds of homeowners say they couldn't have navigated buying or remortgaging without a broker. We share some genuinely heartwarming later life lending stories, showing what equity release actually looks like for real families. There's also a look at the £7.84 billion protection insurers paid out in 2025, proof that cover pays when it matters most, plus an introduction to health cash plans, a quietly useful product many people have never heard of. Finally, we dig into why your car insurance renewal quote might not have moved the way you expected, even as claims costs hit record highs.

Whatever's on your mind this month, whether it's a mortgage, a policy renewal, or just a question, get in touch.

Jack Jackleson
TRM Direct

In this month’s newsletter:

What the New PM Means for Your Mortgage and Cover
Why Two-Thirds of Homeowners Say They Couldn't Have Done It Without a Broker
Real Stories of Later Life Lending
£7.84 Billion Reasons to Talk About Protection
Have You Heard of a Health Cash Plan?
Did Your Car Insurance Renewal Quote Move the Way You Expected?

By now you'll have seen the news: Andy Burnham took office as Prime Minister on 20 July, becoming the UK's seventh PM in a decade. A change like this always brings a wave of questions from clients, so this month's newsletter is dedicated to cutting through the headlines and focusing on what actually affects your mortgage, your remortgage timing and your protection cover.

~ A Quick Introduction ~

For anyone who hasn't followed his career closely, Burnham is not a new face in Westminster. First elected as an MP in 2001, he held several Cabinet posts under the last Labour government, including Culture Secretary and Health Secretary [1]. He then spent nine years as Mayor of Greater Manchester, where he built a reputation for regional devolution and for bringing local bus services back under public control through the "Bee Network" [2]. He returned to Parliament in June and was confirmed as Labour leader within weeks, having secured near-unanimous backing from Labour MPs [3][4].

~ Housing: The Shortage Hasn't Gone Anywhere ~

Burnham has spoken about Britain being stuck in a "housing trap" of undersupply, pushing rents and prices out of reach, and is expected to champion a new wave of council and affordable housing [5]. For our clients, the key point is this: a change of Prime Minister rarely changes market fundamentals overnight. The structural shortage of homes and steady rental demand are unchanged [6].

What is genuinely new is the package of home-buying reforms that took effect in June, including digital sales packs, digital property logbooks, and earlier binding agreements designed to stop sales falling through. These have cross-party support, so we're not expecting the new government to reverse them [6].

~ Economy: Keep an Eye on the Autumn Budget, Not No. 10 ~

Growth has been sluggish, and mortgage approvals for house purchases were down 11% year-on-year as of May, partly reflecting buyers pausing during the leadership transition [7]. If that's been you, it's an understandable instinct, but political uncertainty often creates a quieter market with less competition for well-priced homes [6].

The date that matters most for your planning isn't a date in July, it's the Autumn Budget. A cross-party committee has recommended the government consult on stamp duty reform before year-end, but this remains at the consultation stage only, with nothing decided [6].

Our Advice This Month

Get ahead of any remortgage. If your deal ends in the next six months, lock in a rate now rather than waiting for policy clarity that may take time to arrive.
Don't try to time the political cycle. The market has absorbed six PM changes in the past decade, it will absorb this one too.
Revisit your protection cover. Periods of uncertainty are exactly when a gap in income protection or life cover tends to be most costly.

As always, get in touch if you'd like to talk through your own numbers. That's a far better use of your time than watching Westminster.

Get in Touch

For all the talk of AI tools and comparison sites reshaping financial services, the latest data on the UK mortgage market tells a different story: human advice still matters, and it matters more than ever. If you're navigating a purchase or remortgage yourself, this is exactly the kind of support we're here to offer, get in touch and let's talk it through.

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.

Get in touch today

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

There's a lot of noise around Later Life Lending, headlines about rates, regulation, and market data. But behind every number is a real person making a real decision about their home and their family. The Equity Release Council keeps a case study archive [1] of stories shared by real customers through their advisers, and a few of them stopped us in our tracks. We wanted to share them here.

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.

Get in Touch

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.

Every day in 2025, protection insurers paid out £21.5 million to families across the UK. Money that arrived at exactly the moment it was needed most: after a bereavement, a cancer diagnosis, or an injury that stopped someone earning.

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.

Get in touch today

If dentist bills, new glasses, or physio have ever caught you off guard, there's a product that might be quietly saving other people hundreds of pounds a year. 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.

Here's a statistic that doesn't quite add up at first glance: UK motor insurers paid out a record £11.9 billion in claims across 2025, and yet, for most of that year, the average premium was falling [1]. If your renewal quote didn't move the way you expected, this gap explains why.

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.

Get in Touch


Tammie Cook Director & Co-Founder BA (Hons), Dip.RS, CeMap, CeRER Telephone: 07990 522 770 Email: tammie@home-finance.co.uk	Damion Silcock Director & Co-Founder CeFA, CeMAP, CeRER, CeLTM Telephone: 07941 323 600 Email: damion@home-finance.co.uk