National Home Security Month
The hidden cost of a burglary
New ONS data reveals a decade-long shift in the emotional impact of residential break-ins and what it means for the products you specify.
Residential burglaries in England and Wales have fallen by 20 % since 2022, and the broader trend over the past decade points in the same direction. On the surface that looks like progress, and in many respects it is. But buried in the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales is a trend that tells a more complicated story. While incidents have declined, the emotional impact on victims has not fallen with them.
In 2025, 53 % of burglary victims reported a lasting loss of confidence or feeling of vulnerability( up from 31 % in 2015). Anxiety or panic attacks increased from 23 % to 37 % and fear as a reported emotional response climbed from 35 % to 46 %. These statistics describe what happens to a homeowner after someone has been through their front door uninvited. For many people it happens to, it changes how they feel in their own home for years afterwards. The installers and locksmiths who understand that are the ones having better conversations with their customers, not conversations designed to alarm, but ones that give homeowners genuine confidence in the products protecting their homes.
Where we are most vulnerable
The decade of ONS data does more than reveal the emotional toll. It tells us how burglaries are actually happening and how that picture has shifted since 2015.
The front door is an increasingly common point of entry, rising from 52 % of incidents in 2015 to 60 % in 2025. For fabricators and installers, that means the cylinder and hardware on the front door carry more weight than ever in determining whether a break-in attempt succeeds or fails.
The standards are changing
Against this backdrop, security standards for euro cylinders are changing. From 1st January 2027, any cylinder supplied into doors requiring PAS24 certification must meet the updated PAS24:2022 + A1:2024 standard. Sold Secure SS312 has also been updated to the same 2024 standard, adding four additional attack methods to the testing requirements.
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