Results

In other news, Hastings today reported how profitable you can be if you’re second to bottom in the Which? motor claims performance table.

In today’s report on performance for the twelve months ended 31 December 2025, Toby van der Meer, Group CEO, commented: “Our focus is on reducing the cost of insurance for customers and delivering great service.

"Based on this, it’s fantastic to have achieved a 16% year-on-year growth in customers to 4.5 million, and a 13% increase in premiums to over £2 billion. This result has been achieved against a backdrop of falling market prices, and was supported by selective expansion in higher-premium motor segments and growth in home insurance, as well as improved retention levels.

Investing in our capabilities to become the best digital insurer remains a priority, and in addition to a range of improvements to our mobile app, over recent months we have successfully rolled out an enhanced 24x7 mobile messaging platform to customers. Our colleagues have also worked hard to help customers and we have seen high customer satisfaction across all channels, improvements in NPS, and reductions in complaints.

“I am very proud that Hastings has been recognised as the UK’s #1 Best Big Company to Work For, for the second year running. This is a reflection of our 4Cs way of working and investment in colleagues. Our commitment to community initiatives also strengthened, with colleagues delivering more than 2,500 days of voluntary support, contributing over £395,000 to charities, and helping us further reduce our carbon emissions.”

Financial highlights

Strong performance for the year ended 31 December 2025, including:

• Live customer polices increased 16% year-on-year to 4.5 million policies at 31 December 2025. Growth in home products and selective expansion in higher premium motor segments supported new customer acquisition, while reduced consumer movement within a declining‑price environment contributed to stronger policy renewal levels. Motor live customer policies climbed by 13% year-on-year, while home policies increased by 27% over the same period.

• Gross written premium & brokerage income up 13% year-on-year to £2,454.8m (2024: £2,172.0m), with disciplined participation in higher‑value motor segment helping to counteract the broader decline in market prices. 

• Operating ratio rose slightly to 89.2% (2024: 88.5%), reflecting reduction in average net premium, higher acquisition outflows linked to new policy growth, together with continued investment in service infrastructure and digital development.

• Underwriting result of £184.7m (2024: £161.1m), up 15% year-on-year, largely reflecting the modest increase in operating ratio on a higher net insurance revenue.

  
  

Strategic and operational initiatives

Significant progress continues to be made on strategic and operational initiatives:

• Messenger, our 24x7 messaging functionality in the Hastings mobile app, now fully rolled out, with over 1 million interactions since launch.

• Development of the pricing, data and analytics agenda, including successful scaling of our motor and home pricing teams, the rollout of new models, and the delivery of high volumes of segmented pricing changes.

• Improved efficiency in operational areas delivered through reduced handling times, automation of processes, and expansion of digital capabilities.

• Continued advancements in technology, including functionality of the mobile app, AI proof of concepts, the rollout of Guidewire to home claims, and significant further investment in our cloud based data platforms, as well as enhancements to data management and cyber controls.

• Customer Hardship Fund considered over 680 applications and awarded more than £47,000 in financial assistance to customers facing exceptional circumstances