Gloucester-based Ecclesiastical Insurance has retained its top spot in the Fairer Finance Home Insurance league table for a record fifteenth time and remains the UK's most trusted home insurance provider.

The specialist insurer topped the list of 50 insurers including household names such as Bank of Scotland, Marks & Spencer, LV and Aviva- retaining Gold Ribbon status for another year.

Fairer Finance, an independent consumer group, surveys around 20,000 UK banking and insurance customers throughout the year, asking them to rate how satisfied they are with their bank or insurance company.

Customers are asked to rate the firms on happiness and trust, Fairer Finance then uses records from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to assess complaints handling and a combination of mystery shopping and policy document reviews to assess transparency.

Ecclesiastical scored highest across every category including most trusted, best for complaints handling, most transparent and with the highest rating of customer happiness. Its overall customer experience score is 89 per cent, almost 10 per cent higher than closest rivals Age Partnership and NFU Mutual.

Mark Hews, group chief executive of Benefact Group, the parent company of Ecclesiastical, said: "I'm incredibly proud that Ecclesiastical has again been voted into first place in the Fairer Finance league table for home insurance.

"We are absolutely committed to being the most trusted financial services group in all our markets, so it is wonderful to hear that we have the happiest customers, as well as scoring highest for trust, transparency and complaints handling.

"We are very different to other businesses. We are a charity-owned financial services group with a purpose to contribute to the greater good of society. At the heart of Benefact Group is an ethos of care. We care about the good that charities can do with our money and we care about the customers we look after. That is why we have such high customer retention rates and why we have been voted the Most Trusted Insurer by Fairer Finance.

"As the fourth biggest corporate donor in the UK we have an ambition to be the biggest and to donate an incredible £250m to good causes by the end of 2025."

James Daley, managing director at Fairer Finance, said: "Ecclesiastical continues to set the bar for excellent customer experience - not just in home insurance but across all the sectors we rate. It's now in its eighth year at the top of our home insurance tables, and continues to maintain a clear lead over its nearest competitors. Congratulations to the Ecclesiastical team for another great result."