1. Securing the Nation:
The Case for Safer
Homes
January 2007
Jane Milne
Head of Property and Creditor

2. What is the issue?
• 655,000 households experienced at least
one burglary within last 12 months
= 1.6m people
• Insurers pay out £1m per day to burglary
victims and £1.5m per day to arson
victims

3. What is the issue?
• Burglary levels are falling
– do we really need to do
anything?
• The total social and
economic cost of a burglary
has increased to £3,267 on
average
• Lack of security is the main reason a property
is targeted
• There are significant social equity issues

4. Where does the burden lie?
• Inner city areas and the • But each of these
very poor are 60-70% groups rank as the
more likely to be burgled least likely to have
insurance
• Young households are
163% more likely to be •Less than half have
burgled insurance
•Single parent households
•They also have least
are 148% more likely to be control over their
burgled housing security
standards

5. The opportunities for action
• Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004
gives legal basis for Building Regulations
on security
• Regulation should be risk-based and
proportionate
• Full benefits of regulatory action should be
taken into account
• Voluntary approaches such as the code for
Sustainable Homes do not deliver

6. Methodology
• Focused on:
•target hardening (SBD as a benchmark)
•new builds and major refurbishments
• Tested model using:
•burglary rates of 5% with sensitivity
analysis of 3% and 7%
•burglary reduction rates of 50% with
sensitivity analysis of 25% and 75%
• Average cost of a burglary £3,300

7. Key Findings
• Average cost of measures = £630 per home
• Benefits:
•£1,173 per home over 20 years
•Year One 400,000 households benefit
= £215m net savings
•Over 20 years the regulations would save
the economy over £3.2bn

8. What next?
• Building Regulations based on SBD to
protect people living in social and private
housing
• Strengthening of the Code for Sustainable
Homes
• No opt out
on security
• Greater weighting
of security