Stay safe

Protect your home against unwanted visitors by following our simple home safety advice:

• Check that all doors and windows are locked before leaving your home
• Remember, if you have a UPVC door, lift the handle to engage the locking points and then lock it securely by turning the key
• Have deadlocks fitted to all your outside doors
• Make sure the windows have key locks fitted – and don’t leave the key in the lock
• Don’t keep your spare keys in an obvious place, especially just inside the front door
• Fit an alarm and switch it on
• Look like you’re in when you’re out – set timer switches to turn lights and radios on and off
• Make sure your valuables can’t be seen through the windows
• Lock gates, fit high fences and grow prickly plants
• Cut back overgrown hedges which a burglar could hide behind if they wanted to break in
• Cut off any strong tree branches which someone could climb up on to reach upstairs windows
• Make sure all garden tools are locked away – burglars could use your own garden equipment to force a door or window
• Consider putting in sensor lights or permanent night-time lighting
• Do not open your door to strangers – if you don’t know who they are, don’t let them in
• If you’re going on holiday cancel milk and papers and ask someone you trust to pick up post and keep an eye on your home
• Mark all your valuables so that if your home is burgled you stand a better chance of getting them back
• If windows and doors are at street level, don’t leave them open while you’re upstairs or in the garden – it only takes a moment for someone to slip in
• If there’s an alley at the back of your home, consider getting together with neighbours to ask the council to put a gate on it so only residents have access.