UK consumers are more harshly marking down insurers for their treatment of loyal customers, despite the industry tackling concerns about high renewal prices.

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Trust Index shows the failure to reward customer loyalty represents the biggest gap between expectations and performance, and the gulf widened in the latest survey to a rating of 9.1 from 7.64 last year.

The Association of British Insurers and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association last year released “guiding principles and action points” to address criticism over pricing gaps between new customers and those that renew.

CII Policy and Public Affairs Director Matthew Connell says insurers are more aware of the issue of rewarding loyalty but perceptions around performance have not changed yet.

“We expect that as the actions taken by insurers to reward existing customers for their loyalty take effect, the rating around this crucial aspect of trust will begin to rise,” Mr Connell said.

“This experience underlines that fact that once trust falls, it takes a long time to rebuild it.”

The Trust Index research surveyed 1000 consumers and 1000 small businesses.