Employers' Liability Cover
If you run a site crew, this is a legal mandate in the UK. It applies to permanent engineers, sub-contractors, and temporary site laborers alike. Operating without it can land you a statutory fine of £2,500 for every single day you remain uninsured.
Example for construction: A specialist contractor slips while working on a wet steel framework at height and suffers a severe fracture.
Public Liability Cover
An absolute priority for any active construction site. This covers compensation costs and legal fees if your development activities accidentally injure a member of the public or cause damage to their property.
Example for construction: While your team is excavating a commercial site, a vibration mishap cracks the structural retaining wall of an adjacent business premises.
Tools and Materials Cover
Your business relies on your kit to stay operational. This protects your day-to-day power tools, safety gear, and building materials against theft, loss, or accidental damage while on-site or stored overnight in a secure van.
Example for construction: A secure shipping container on-site is breached over the weekend, and your entire inventory of copper piping and high-value welding gear is cleared out.
Hired-In Plant Insurance
When you are leasing expensive specialist machinery to scale up a project, you are usually contractually liable for it. This independent policy covers the cost of repairs, vandalism, or replacement for equipment you don't own, ensuring your working capital stays right where you need it.
Example for construction: A rented tower crane or a specialist heavy excavator is heavily damaged during a flash flooding event on-site, leaving your firm responsible for the hire company's loss.
Owned Plant Insurance
Your heavy-duty machinery is a massive asset that you’ve worked hard to build up. This specific cover steps in to fund a replacement if the heavy plant, diggers, or mixers that belong directly to your firm are stolen from a yard or destroyed on a live site.
Example for construction: A high-value site dumper owned by your company is hotwired and driven out of a secure compound overnight.
Contract Works Insurance
Protects the physical work you are currently constructing while it's still in progress. If a fire, flood, or extreme storm destroys a structure halfway through construction, this funds the cost of the materials and labor required to rebuild it back to that stage.
Example for construction: An accidental electrical fire breaks out in a multi-storey development project, destroying the timber framing just weeks before practical completion.
Professional Indemnity Cover
Essential if your construction firm provides design-and-build services, surveying, or structural calculations. This covers you if a client claims your professional plans or advice caused them a financial loss.
Example for construction: A calculation error in your foundational blueprints causes a building delay, forcing the developer to pay thousands in missed completion penalties.
