It may be well-known that Brits love their
gardens, but it appears they are becoming more and more elaborate.
New research from Lloyd’s TSB Insurance shows
that the British public spends £14 billion every year on their back yards, with
homeowners spending an average of £894 on furniture and accessories in the past
12 months.
But with a tenth of homeowners saying that
they had invested in their garden because they could not afford to move home,
it is interesting that outdoor spaces are becoming more about leisure then
lawns.
Sales of outdoor plants may have fallen, but
one in ten homeowners had added a hot tub and eight per cent had built a summer
house outside. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that nearly six out of
ten said that their main use for their garden was as somewhere to relax.
Even so, it seems some homeowners have not
given much thought to protecting their luxury gardens, with 44 per cent
admitting either that their outdoor items were not insured or that they had no
idea whether they were covered.