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Construction boost for security industry
A SECURITY firm which aims to protect businesses from a recession-fuelled crime surge, expects signs of an easing in the troubled construction industry will boost demand.
The Defence Group, based in Sheffield, said it has received more inquiries from small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in the industrial sector, since a dire period between November last year and this February.
Firms have been on their guard again since last autumn when Jacqui Smith, then the Home Secretary, warned in a leaked report that Britain faced an increase in burglaries and violent crime as the economic downturn worsened.
Sufian Abdullah, owner and chairman of The Defence Group, said they had received most inquiries from factories and offices recently, compared to the winter, when the construction industry "came to a halt". Now he hopes to pick up more work in three to six months' time once these projects have progressed and there are more buildings which need protection.
Mr Abdullah said there had been a spike in demand from very small businesses – for example, industrial firms which had suffered a spate of steel thefts last year because of a rise in commodity prices worldwide.
"People are looking for more protection but in the credit crunch, spending money on security tends to be a 'grudge purchase'. Often you think about it only when there is a burglary."
Mr Abdullah, formerly managing director of the company, also said that there was a lack of official details about the types of crime against businesses."The police don't measure it, so we just get anecdotal information, and a lot of very small businesses tend not to report it because they are more concerned about continuing with their business."
Chris Graham, managing director of The Defence Group, said: "Everyone is talking about stopping knife crime etc, but we need to do much more to tackle crimes against businesses now. These are often seen as victimless but they can send a company under.
"SMEs are the lifeblood of this country and are under more pressure than ever because of the recession."
Last year, research showed that more businesses in Yorkshire are the victims of crime than anywhere else in Britain. A study by Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce showed that 62 per cent of firms here had been on the receiving end of everything from vandalism to robbery.
The problem costs companies 12.6bn and makes up one-sixth of all crimes committed.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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