“Today’s decision by the High Court marks a significant milestone in a process that at its heart has been about understanding the extent to which business interruption insurance provides cover under the unprecedented conditions we experienced over the last two-and-a-half years,” Hall said

John Berrill, principal at law firm Berrill and Watson, who is representing business customers, estimated between a quarter and half of firms with business interruption cover could have viable claims.

However, Berrill said many companies had been dissuaded from putting in claims by insurance companies, and in the small number of cases where insurers were assessing how much to pay out they were “taking every point they can”.

“There are thousands of businesses that have still got viable claims, and the problem is that very few of them have actually made claims,” said Berrill, who is also involved with class actions against QBE and Lloyds over business interruption cover.

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