§ Mr. Corbettasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress he has made on his invitation to local authority associations, the British Gas Corporation and the Electricity Council to consider block insurance arrangements to cover household contents and thefts from meters.
§ Mr. MellorThe Associations of Metropolitan Authorities, District Councils and County Councils, and the Electricity Council and British Gas Corporation were invited early this year to consider the possibility of block insurance arrangements. The Associations of Metropolitan Authorities and District Councils have agreed to circulate their members with a view to encouraging the development, where appropriate, of block insurance schemes such as already exist in some areas. The Electricity Council and British Gas Corporation see a number of difficulties with such schemes, especially as regards the widespread insurance of household contents by individual customers, the difficulty in finding insurers willing to quote for such cover and the problem of meter thefts by or in collusion with a member of the household concerned; in the case of thefts from meters, crime prevention may have a more significant part to play than block insurance arrangements.