Norfolk has the second fewest burglaries in the country, according to recent research, with Suffolk coming in third.
According to security company ADT’s 2023 Burglary Report, the county is one of the least targeted areas of England and Wales by home robbers.
It saw just 3.3 burglaries per 1,000 residences in the year ending March 2023.
This represents a decrease of 5.9 per cent in the burglary rate from 2022 for areas including Norwich and King’s Lynn.
Suffolk experienced 3.7 burglaries per 1,000 households in the same period, with burglaries decreasing by 9.8 per cent since last year.
The safest place to live was Devon and Cornwall, which experienced 2.3 burglaries per 1,000 households.
Despite Norfolk being one of the safest counties in which to live, experts still advise householders to take steps to protect their rental homes.
These include:
*Locking away valuables. Most burglars target small valuables that are left in plain sight and difficult to trace. You should always hide items like your purse, wallet, and jewellery at night and when you leave your house.
*Taking care on social media. Posting your holiday dates while you are at the airport or on holiday as well as your current whereabouts on social media can let people know you are out of your home and potentially away for a long period of time. This is the ideal time for burglars to strike. You should always ensure that you have your privacy settings on platforms such as Facebook set to private.
*Lighting up your home when it is dark. Using smart plugs allows you to turn on a few well-appointed lights and radios or televisions from any location from your phone. Programming lights to come on at different times throughout the night and when you are away will help to deter burglars by making your property look occupied.
*Keeping your garden trimmed. Thieves look for escape routes and hiding spots when deciding which homes to break into, making gardens with high, overgrown hedges more likely to be targeted. This will also prevent burglars from operating under the cloak of darkness and increase the chance of a passerby spotting suspicious activity. This is especially true in the longer evenings, so be sure to give your garden a thorough tidy-up to make your property less likely to be targeted.
*Locking away any tools and equipment that could assist a burglar. These might include ladders to reach upper level windows and hammers or heavy gardens tools to force entry.
