The ‘save versus spend’ battle is seeing the ‘spenders’ get left behind. More and more people are looking to cut back on purchases that are not ‘needs’ and are opting instead to repair instead of replace.

What this means is a drop in sales for nearly all consumer sectors; that includes those of van purchases. New van vehicle sales have seen a significant slump which has invariably had a knock on affect on the number of registrations.

Research from the SMMT has shown that van registrations have dropped by 22.1 per cent for the month of September to 6,185 and some 22 per cent for the year to date to a mere 44,117. Paul Eviritt the chief executive of the SMMT (The Motor Industry), commented that “the summer’s spending cut meant a sharp drop in...van registrations”. The knock on affect of this is a reduced number of van insurance applicants and perhaps a reduction in the level of cover being taken out by existing customers.