Plymouth 5th most secure city in the UK

Plymouth has been ranked fifth in a study to find the most secure areas across the UK.

This position is thanks to the area's low burglary rate coupled with a high ‘security awareness’ score, ensuring the city’s position in the UK’s top five.

Plymouth was joined by Exeter and Swindon in the top five, with Norwich taking first place in being the city least at risk. At the opposite end of the table, Wigan came out bottom, with Halifax and Oldham making up the three cities with the highest burglary ‘Risk Score’ across the UK.

The ‘Safety League Table’ and ‘Burglary Risk Grid’ was calculated using sales data from The Safe Shop, the UK’s largest home security provider, the population size and the relative burglary rates of each city. These figures were then used in a formula to calculate an overall Risk Score.

The study was able to throw up some surprising results such as York being the only city in the north of the UK to be ranked within the top 10. The statistics show that this is largely down to the ‘security awareness’ of the city.

The more security aware consumers are, such as installing equipment like door and window locks, the less chance there is of a risk of burglary. The data backs this up with six of the top 10 safest cities gaining a security awareness score higher than the overall cities average of 24. This is compared to the bottom 10, who all achieved a score below 10.

Anthony Neary, an expert in security, states that “With the dark nights approaching a great security measure is to fit a security light. If you have one fitted make sure it’s working. People forget this sort of the thing over the bright summer months when they’re not needed.”

To view the complete list of town rankings and for more information about the study, you can go to the Safe Shop’s blog: http://www.thesafeshop.co.uk/blog/2014/10/the-safest-cities-in-the-uk/