Over half of the UK population worry about their houses being burgled on a regular basis, according to new research.
53% of Brits said that they were worried about their homes being broken into, with 47% of these saying it is a regular concern and 6% admitting that they worry about it all of the time.
The study of 1,000 people, conducted by IronmongeryDirect, was undertaken to find out Brits’ views on home security and investigate how secure their homes really are. It found that over a third of people (34%) have had their home broken into in the past five years, with 9% of these people having been a victim more than once. And nearly half (43%) knew someone else in their neighbourhood who had been burgled.
Despite these figures, the study found that two-thirds of the population (62%) actually felt safe in their homes, with those living in the North West claiming to feel the safest – 93% said they felt safe. The area that people felt less safe in was West Midlands, with just over a quarter of people admitting they felt safe in their homes.
Wayne Lysaght-Mason, managing director at IronmongeryDirect, said: “Everyone has the right to feel safe in their own home, and although most people do feel safe, a lot of people are still concerned about the threat of burglary. It’s alarming to see that for nearly half of the population this is a frequent concern and could perhaps be due to the fact that a similar number of people actually know someone in their area who has had their property broken into.
“To ensure a home is secure, it’s really important that property owners take measures to properly protect it, and invest in a range of quality security products to prevent the risk of burglary. Our research found that a large proportion of people mainly rely on locks and security lighting to protect their properties, but there are a number of other solutions that can provide higher levels of security and give property owners peace of mind. These include products such as door viewers which make it easier to identify visitors, secure gates and fencing to protect the grounds of the property, windows bars, and CCTV camera systems and alarms.”
IronmongeryDirect has created an infographic of the survey results, which can be found at www.IronmongeryDirect.co.uk/home-security
