Editor's comment: Unfinished business

And this at a time when a litany of issues, central to the industry's future prosperity, remain unresolved.

Such challenges cry out for campaigning with a united front; lobbying with a loud and singular voice, not industry in-fighting.

While totally empathising with the ‘broker value' point Biba was at pains to make, it is unfortunate that its bid for customer fairness alluded to unethical insurer behaviour and thus cast its colleagues as villains of the piece.

This being the final edition of Post I shall edit, I found myself musing on the long-running issues it saddens me to see still rumbling on. Unlike Mr Sinatra before me, my regrets may be few - but not too few to mention.

Over the past 12 years, I have frequently returned to a handful of topics that refuse to go away. So here are the three wishes I am granting myself: compensation while living for every single sufferer of asbestos-induced mesothelioma; a realistic, risk-based sustainable solution to the rising flood threat backed by government to ensure that the political incumbents remain motivated to invest in adequate flood defences; and the embedding of rehabilitation across the private and public sectors, whether that be by employers keen to reduce sickness absence while improving employee morale, well-being and productivity, or insurers and claimant solicitors collaborating effectively to maximise the independence and ability regained by the injured.

In 2012 we moved a step closer on the mesothelioma question with the creation of an insurance fund of last resort.

A laudable achievement but one weakened by its failure to provide for those diagnosed prior to 25 July 2012, and the two-year delay to payment, by which time sufferers will inevitably have died, not knowing whether their dependents are financially secure.

On rehabilitation, the step change will come from a simple shift in mindset - or a mandate - to consider it while removing the current tax disincentives for employers to embrace schemes that could prevent injury, and claims.

And as for my wish to see a long-term agreement to replace the 12 year-old sticking plaster of the Statement of Principles, I fear that by the time that happens the much-quoted figure of 200 000 potentially uninsurable properties will have soared skyward. If it hasn't already.

Lynn Rouse, editor