The Grit really wants to concentrate on economics, but if the latest data is telling us about crimes against property, then that’s where we’ll have to start. Last week the ONS published breakdowns of property crimes, including detailed breakdowns by region. I don’t know of any work which measures how the frequency of crime affects overall financial and economic security, but it surely must. So how active are the North’s crooks, relatively speaking?
My Scouser friends (and I do have some) will be surprised to hear that the North West’s burglars and tealeafs are rather work-shy, compared to the rest of the UK. The ONS checks seven categories of property crime, and it turns out that if you live in the North West, you have a lower-than-national average chance of domestic burglary, other break-in, having your car and/or bike stolen, of being the victim personal theft. But you are slightly more likely to be robbed, apparently
There’s a similar laissez-faire attitude among the North East’s criminal classes, scoring lower that average frequencies of h’hold theft, personal theft, robbery, or car and bike theft. The fog on the Tyne apparently does not encourage these sorts of crime.
Sadly, the situation is not so good in Yorkshire, where you’ve a slightly higher than average chance of being the victim of domestic burglary or other h’hold theft, and of having your bike nicked. On the other hand, you are very unlikely to be directly robbed or be the victim of personal theft.
Overall, the North East and North West are tied as low-crime areas, but Yorkshire comes out very slightly higher than the national average.
But Yorkshiremen can comfort themselves with the knowledge that they are a remarkably law-abiding lot compared to the den of criminals infesting London. If you live in London you have more than double the national average chance of having your car nicked, your bike nicked, someone nicking stuff from you, or simply robbing you. Maybe ‘London weighting’ is partly there to compensate for the sharply reduced chances of actually keeping the stuff you buy for long.