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Burglaries up as recession starts to take its toll

This article is more than 15 years old
Ministers plan emergency summit to tackle rise
Overall rate stable with 29% fall in gun offences

Ministers are to call an emergency summit to tackle the first significant rise in burglaries in seven years, as the latest Home Office figures show that the effects of the economic recession are beginning to have an impact on the crime rate.

The quarterly crime figures show that the overall crime rate remained stable, according to the authoritative British Crime Survey, and dropped by 3%, according to the separate police-recorded crime figures.

Overall violent crime fell by 6% - or by 15,000 fewer incidents, according to the police, and was stable, according to the British Crime Survey, with significant falls in gun crime (down 29%), car thefts (10%) and criminal damage (8%).

But the detailed figures seem to show that the underlying trend in the crime rate, which has seen a sustained fall since 1995, is now beginning to bottom out.

A 4% rise in domestic burglary, a 16% increase in fraud and forgery and an 18% rise in street robberies committed at knifepoint led Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians to claim yesterday that there was now clear evidence of rising crime as the recession bites.

A 9% rise in drug offences was attributed to a rise in police activity as officers issued more formal warnings as a result of the downgrading of cannabis.

Last July Home Office statisticians said they expected the economic downturn to lead to "upward pressure" on the crime rate but both Gordon Brown and the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, denied that it would necessarily lead to an increase in crime: "There will be a small minority of criminals who think they can take advantage in tough times. Let me tell them now, they can't and they won't," said the home secretary.

The last sustained rise in the burglary rate was seen in the mid-1990s in the aftermath of the 1991-92 recession, although there were "blips" in 2000-01. The police recorded crime figures yesterday showed a rise of 4% in domestic burglary and 3% increases in "other burglaries" on businesses and other premises in the 12 months to September.

The home secretary said yesterday that the summit, to be held in the next fortnight, would include DIY stores, Age Concern and Neighbourhood Watch, and would be backed by a new Home Office fund to "help people in hard times" by funding extra locks and alarms, and a new burglary prevention campaign starting next month.

The 18% increase in robberies involving knives and sharp instruments covers a rise from 3,551 attacks in the third quarter of 2007, compared with 4,207 in the third quarter of 2008. But these street robberies at knifepoint only account for 22% of all robberies, which actually fell by 3% to 19,500.

Although this was the first set of crime figures to be released with the home secretary given only 24 hours' notice of their contents, the rise in street robberies at knifepoint may help explain why Downing Street was anxious to get more recent data showing positive results from the 10 priority knife-crime hotspots out into the public domain despite censure from the Whitehall statistical watchdog.

The British Crime Survey shows that the risk of becoming a victim of crime remains at a historically low level, yet it also shows increasing concern about people being drunk or rowdy in public places and about rubbish on the streets.

Only 46% feel that their local police or council are tackling the antisocial behaviour and crime issues that matter to them locally. At the same time only a third of the public are confident that the criminal justice system is effective in dealing with crime.

The Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said there was now clear evidence of rising crime as the recession took hold. "Ministers have been too complacent about crime rates falling," he said. "Crime has been dropping in every western European country except Belgium over the last 10 years, mainly because of better security and declining numbers of young men."

The Conservatives' new shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, was also quick to blame "Gordon Brown's credit crunch" for a new "crime wave".

"It is particularly alarming that robberies involving knives have soared and that fatal stabbings are at an all-time high. The government's complacency in this area is proving fatal," said Grayling, ignoring the fact that fatal stabbings have been at this level now for four out of the last six years and increased by one, from 269 to 270, in the latest set of figures.

The quarterly crime figures published yesterday were issued without the violent crime figures being sub-divided by "most serious violent crime" and "less serious" after the national statistician, Karen Dunnell, warned the Home Office that there were doubts about the accuracy of the data.

The decision did not affect the figures for violent crime overall.

The victims: when it happens to you

Paul Guise, 40, a teacher from Leeds, whose home was burgled late last year, on the night he and his wife returned from hospital with their first child.

"Fiona had spent two days in labour, so by the time we eventually got home with Ruby at about seven that evening we were all really tired, but happy to be back. First thing in the morning I came downstairs and saw my car wasn't there. I went to the back and saw that the locks on the patio doors had been smashed. The burglars mainly seemed to be interested in the car keys, but they took some cash and an iPod. It was a terrible feeling. We'd wanted to be home, safe with our daughter, and then that happened. Worse still, I had to go upstairs and tell my wife, who was still in quite an emotional state anyway, that there had been people in the house while we slept. I don't think days get much more stressful than that."

Rachel Cleland, 31, a university worker from Chorlton, Greater Manchester, and her partner were asleep when burglars broke into their terrace house.

"We were upstairs. It was the day after New Year's Day. They came in through the back door - there's an alley at the back and so people can get into the garden. They mainly stole electrical stuff, like laptops, and took the car keys. The car was found crashed in the early hours of the morning. We didn't get anything back. The burglars also took a knife from a kitchen drawer and left it at the front door. I suppose I don't mind so much being burgled - it's happened before - but you don't want to get stabbed with your own knife in your own home. I'm just glad we didn't go downstairs. I suppose there's more anti-burglary things we could do, like put some lights at the back, but it's left us feeling a lot less safe."

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