£1.3m city campaign urged to tackle high toll of burglaries

Leeds was criticised by the Audit Commission for its high burglary levels in 2009-10 and, despite improvements at the last inspection in 2010-11, a number of concerns and recommendations were made.

If members of Leeds City Council back proposals to tackle the issue when they met later this week, more than £1.3m from the Community Safety Fund will be used to tackle burglary levels over the next four years.

The executive board member for environment and neighbourhoods and chairman of Safer Leeds, Coun Peter Gruen, said: “Burglary is a crime which can have a devastating impact on its victims and we have a duty to do all we can to reduce the number of incidents.

“This is something we take very seriously, represented by this investment during a time when we are under pressure to reduce the amount of money we are spending.”

A report to senior councillors says: “This report provides the executive board with a summary of the current burglary position for Leeds, which despite the reductions, has the third highest burglary rate of any Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) in England and Wales.”

The city recorded its highest ever burglary figure of 16,937 in 20023 and significant reductions were achieved to the low of 7,670 in 2005-6.

However, this period of reduction reversed over the following four years until 2010-11 when Leeds saw an approximate seven per cent reduction on the previous year, recording 8,869 crimes. Sustaining this progress, however, has proved to be difficult.

In 2010, 1,600 people were arrested for one or more burglary offences and over the last four years this number exceeds 4,000.

It is widely recognised that Leeds has a number of specific issues which contribute to the high number of burglaries which take place, all of which have been considered as part of the reduction strategy. These include:

High numbers of privately rented Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), which often have poor security measures in place;

One of the largest student populations in the UK, many living in private rented accommodation and concentrated in Headingley, Hyde Park and Woodhouse;

More affluent areas that are closely located to deprived areas, providing easy access for potential offenders;

A high number of young people entering the criminal justice system with burglary as their first offence, which is not typical of other large cities across the country.

It is proposed that a number of tactics are used to drive down the figures including targeting the stolen goods market, looking at how crime prevention for vulnerable groups such as students can be improved and working with young offenders to steer them away from crime.

The council’s executive board will meet tomorrow to discuss the issue and is recommended to agree the Leeds Burglary Reduction Strategy and approve the allocation of £1.326m from the Community Safety Fund.

Coun Gruen said: “This amount of money is a huge investment to tackle burglary in Leeds – an issue that currently affects far too many people in the city.

“We are committed to working with West Yorkshire Police and our other partners to reduce this number and the new Leeds Burglary Reduction Strategy will help achieve this.

“Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police are committed to targeting burglars and disrupting their activities. This strategy will help us achieve this and help ensure that people feel safe in their own homes.”

If agreed by the council’s executive board, a progress report on the impact of the strategy will be brought before the executive board in June 2012.