Burglaries: Is your home at risk?

As the saying goes, an Englishman’s home is his castle — but just how safe is yours? In their latest piece, Ironmongery Direct has explored the safety of British homes and the findings are surprising.

Despite the number of UK burglaries falling by 32% since 2005, there were still 400,361 police-reported burglaries between April 2015 and March 2016. When you break this figure down, it becomes even more shocking: 1,920 burglaries a day, 80 per hour or 1.33 every minute. 

Every homeowner naturally wants to reduce their risk of burglary, not just to prevent the intrusion of their privacy but to minimise the associated costs. Nowadays, figures show that the average burglary costs £3,600 on average. Shockingly, this doesn’t even cover the costs of stolen smartphones and laptops, which can cost around £872 in total to replace.

But how much of an influence does where you live have on your burglary risk? Research by MoneySuperMarket.com suggests that some postcodes are more at risk than others.

It’s bad luck if you live in London, as the capital has the highest burglary rates in the country. South Tulse Hill and Dulwich (SE21) has the highest incident rate at 61.2, while Clayhall (IG5) and Redbridge (IG4) follow closely behind with 57.5 and 56.7 respectively. In fourth place are Gants Hill, Newbury Park and Aldborough Hatch (IG2) with a rate of 53.5.

On the flipside, there are some areas of the country that are statistically safer than others. Harbury (CV33) has an incident rate of 0.7, while Derry, Cityside, Ballynagard, Coshquin, Rosemount, The Collon and Culmore (BT48) follow with 0.9. In joint third place is Bishopston, Blackpill, Caswell, Clyne, Langland, Mumbles, Oystermouth, Southgate, South Gower and West Cross (SA3).

So how do we secure our homes effectively? 60% of burglars admit to avoiding homes with alarms. Locks, indoor lights on timers and motion sensor lights are reported to make a home up to 50 times safer. Clearly, modern day techniques are effective in protecting our homes — but how far can we rely on the past?

From Mesopotamia to Ancient Egypt, Rome and the medieval period, each civilisation had their own way of protecting what was theirs. Would these methods still work in our modern society? In their latest infographic, Ironmongery Direct examines how the world has protected their properties in the past, while predicting what the future will hold. View the graphic in full below to find out more.