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"Bring back the lost art of panel beating and reduce the overall cost of motor insurance premiums…"

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. The reason a new panel might now cost £3k is because of all the electronic gizmos (most of them unnecessary and even unwanted) in modern cars.

A front wing might now contain several sensors for such things as lane departure warnings, autonomous braking and so on. When the wing is damaged all these have to be replaced as well, and then reconnected to the car's engine management unit, perhaps needing to be re-programmed or have software updates installed. All this costs money.

It's not even as though we can opt out of all this nonsense, as it's mandated by the EU, and the manufacturers aren't going to make a separate version for UK buyers. In any case, our government seems just as keen as the EU to force these features into our cars, whether we want them or not.