Personal example for the last 3 years. All Aviva 2 car policies. Price quoted is for both cars. Max NCB protected on both cars.

2016. 2013 Seat Leon 1.4 TSi 140 PS and 2015 Nissan Note 1.2 DIG-S 98 PS. Paid £420.

August 2017 wife was hit up the rear in the Note. Insurer informed but 3rd party paid direct to repairer.

2017. 2017 Skoda Superb 1.4 TSi 150 PS and 2015 Nissan Note 1.2 DIG-S 98 PS. Paid £370.

2018. 2017 Skoda Superb 1.4 TSi 150 PS and 2017 Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSi 110 PS. Paid £340.

To sum up both our cars have slightly more powerful engines than they had in 2016 and a claim is logged on the system (despite costing the insurers nothing) yet the premium paid has dropped £80 over 3 payments.

I suggest you try a comparison website to see if they quote better figures but before you commit ring the lowest, they usually provide a lower quote direct.

As for your annual VED the only way to reduce that is to swap the car for one with a lower rating. But the money to change will be far greater than any savings made.

A couple of additional points to add to the others (which I would second):

1. What is your age? If you're over 70/75 then your current insurer may start to annually load it with a higher premium for being older and statistically more likely to be involved in an 'at fault' accident than if you are in your 50s to 60s, plus that insurer may prefer to insure drivers from a younger age group and so will (amazingly) discourage you from staying with them by again putting the price up each year.

If you regularly do very low mileages, this may also have an effect as you age on the premium, as the insurer may assume (rightly or wrongly) that you lack confidence as all you'd be using it for are short trips to the shops, which may have an effect on ability to get out of trouble. I would check to see how far up the mileage limit you can go before the premium goes up - some years I knew I'd only be doing about 3k miles, but could insurer my car for 5k with no price increase.

2. Do you have anyone on the policy as a named second driver? For similar reasons to the above, this can have a significant effect on the premium. I used to have my Dad on mine (for emergency use if was taken ill and needed someone to drive my car home), but as her turned 70, the premium went up by 5-10% rather than down by a similar amount. I now put my sister (in her 40s) on the policy instead and get the discount.

You might find if your other half has also turned 70/75 (whatever the threshold is for that insurer) that this discount ends and starts being a penalty.

Not much you can do if you both need to be on the policy, just a possible reason why it went up other than the broker not getting the best price - I agree that the screenscraper websites are now far better than the vast majority of brokers to find the cheapest deals.

... I asked what this years cost is and was told £349. I said I would like him to post my new quote so that I had something to go by when looking for an alternative insurer. I do this every year..

I pay only a little more than that for three cars! Each with max no claims (Aviva).