Last month, Rightmove published the results of their ‘Happy at Home Index’. Participants were asked to rate the area in which they lived on twelve different categories, including safety, decor and neighbourliness. The town voted ‘happiest of all’ to live in was Harrogate, Yorkshire followed by nine other towns from varying regions across the UK including Scotland, the Midlands and the South West.
But perhaps most notable of all was the fact that the bottom ten places and therefore the most ‘unhappy places to live’ according to the poll were all in London. Indeed Enfield was deemed to be the sixth least happy place to live of all, being placed 106th out of 111 areas nationally on ‘safety’. Interestingly though, residents in Enfield that participated did rate the area well for amenities where Enfield ranked 24th out of 111.
Our infographic ‘Crime in London’ actually shows that burglary rates in London have decreased by 12% over the last 2 years so could it be that the safety concerns of local residents are unfounded? Certainly not, although burglary rates are dropping there have still been 2,356 recorded residential burglaries in the Enfield area from April 2013 to April 2014 (source Metropolitan Police) There are however many ways in which you can protect your home to make it less at risk of being broken into.