Burglary results in anguish and upset. Even though the financial losses incurred are reduced significantly by a home insurance claim, it is important to undertake simple, practical ideas to improve your home security and installing an alarm to avoid being burgled.
Burglaries are mostly associated with darkness, and this explains why there is an increase of burglary claims by 12% during darker, colder months. However, due to recent circumstances, 2021 has seen burglaries fall by 7% for the first time in three years. Based on reports by MoneySuperMarket, 2021 is the first year to experience a decrease in burglary claims. After consecutive years of an increase in cases of burglary, the average number of claims per 1000 people fell from 16.03 in 2020 to 14.98 in 2021.
Birmingham tops the list
Despite the reduction in cases of burglaries, Birmingham remains to be the most burgled region in the UK. The B5 postcode area covering Highgate, Lee Bank, and Digbeth was top in rankings for a consecutive second year. The area experienced a burglary rate of 69.44 home content burglary claims out of every 1000 quotes. This is an increase of 22% from 57.14 in 2020.
In the UK, Greater Birmingham, Sheffield, Greater Manchester, and Greater London were the four cities that have the highest claims of burglary. From the postcodes that had the highest number of claims, Greater London had thirteen of them with Stratford E9 having the largest share of the claims.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of burglary claims has taken a nosedive in 2021. This can be attributed to the lockdown restrictions that have been imposed in 2020 and 2021. Since more people are staying home than normal, prospective burglars consider this to be a deterrent which explains the gradual fall in burglary claim numbers.
Burglary and Break-in Hotspots
In 2020, the price comparison website MoneySuperMarket revealed the B5 postcode as the hotspot for Britain’s major claims of burglary. The central postcode of Birmingham that covers Lee Bank, Digbeth, and Highgate had a burglary rate of 57.44 claims per every 1000 given quotes.
The B94 postcode also located in the midlands, covering Solihull and Olton was second with a burglary rate of 52.53%. The London IG5 postcode that covers Clayhall came in third with a burglary rate of 51.64%.
The three major cities were the hardest with 18 out of the top 20 postcodes found in Birmingham, London, and Manchester. Out of the top 20, nine of them were found in Greater London, four in Greater Manchester, and four in Greater Birmingham.
On the other hand, the suburban region of Ripley, Send, Wisely, and Ockham found their way into the list having the 17th highest burglary claim rate at 46.8%. Broadway located in the Cotswolds came in 9th position having a burglary claim rate of 47.97%.
The region with the least cases of burglary was the South West, having just 5.7 burglary claims per every 1000 households. More so, in this area, Cornwall and Devon stand out from the rest with a burglary incident rate of 2.8% claims per every 1000 households.
How do you minimise losses from a burglary?
The most effective way of minimising your losses after a burglary is obtaining home insurance. Do you have contents insurance for your home in place? However, there are instances where your home insurance may reject your insurance claim. They include:
- Security failures. Home insurers require your house has a certain security level which generally would involve having locks on your accessible windows and deadlocks on your external doors. If you forget to lock the doors, say if you were heading to the shops, your insurance provider could reject your claim. To avoid this, you should invest more in robust security systems such as cameras and burglar alarms.
- High-value commodities. High-value items like jewellery, laptops and phones are the items that are sought-after by burglars buy your home insurer cannot automatically cover them. You need to purchase an additional cover for items that are above a given value.
- Long holidays. Home insurers require that your house should not be left unoccupied for over 30 consecutive days. If you’re going on an extended trip, ensure that you check first with your insurance provider.
