Singles set for £48bn home insurance gap

Britain's single-person households are sitting on a home insurance "time-bomb", as the value of their home contents rises, More Than has warned.

The average value of the contents of a single-person household now stands at £19,284, the insurer has calculated - but one person in three does not bother with cover, according to the More Than Home Contents Index.

And this problem is only set to get worse as the number of people living alone or with friends in the UK is set to rise further - along with the value of their possessions.

In 2001 singles left £38.1 billion worth of possessions uninsured, which will rise to £48.2 billion by 2021 if things continue as they are.

"People are marrying later and with divorce rates on the increase, the problem of single people without adequate insurance could snowball. It is estimated that the average disposable income will rise to £30,000 by 2008, which could drive the value of possessions up even further," said David Pitt, head of insurance at More Than.

The South East looks set witness the largest increase in single person households - with a projected growth of 41 per cent between 2001 and 2021.

And despite the numbers of single-occupancy homes that are uninsured, many now contain valuable items such as high tech gadgets, expensive clothing, DVD players, CD collections and the latest entertainment systems.