Research carried out by moneysupermarket.com, the leading price comparison website in the UK, has revealed that homeowners in Doncaster and Bristol are the most likely in the country to make a claim on their home insurance for theft or burglary. Nearly 6% of homeowners in Doncaster and Bristol have made a theft or burglary claim in the past year. With the figure sitting at 5% for Canvey Island, this region was put in third place by the website.

Overall, the price comparison website revealed the top 20 UK postcodes which are most at risk of theft and burglary. Seven of these postcodes are located in Greater London. Brentford and West Norwood are the areas of London most at risk and this statistic has come as no surprise to the head of insurance research at moneysupermarket.com, Peter Gerrard.

Gerrard was, however, surprised to see Doncaster and Bristol taking the top spots. He stated that the website’s research has shown that “any area, regardless of reputation, can be classed as ‘high-risk’”. Although London has a bad reputation for crime, homeowners living across the country must take basic security precautions because burglary can become an issue in any community.

Peter Gerrard was keen to take the opportunity of reminding homeowners to ensure that their home contents insurance is up to date and at a sufficient level to cover all respective belongings. This is especially important at the moment because the long winter nights bring “an increasing number of opportunistic thieves”.

Confused.com has announced that Halifax has joined its home insurance panel. The latest addition to the impressive panel has consolidated the position of Confused.com in the price comparison market. This position was already extremely dominant prior to the Halifax announcement, following several recent additions including HSBC, Tesco, Churchill and Alliance & Leicester.

Halifax offers unlimited buildings cover for the homes of customers, as well as providing unlimited cover for their contents. Furthermore, the company offers up to £5,000 worth of cover for valuable items classified as high-risk, contents cover for accidental damage and a great online discount of approximately 35%.

The commercial director at Confused.com, Peter Ablett, has spoken of his excitement at Halifax joining the company’s home insurance panel. He was especially keen to praise their decision to “offer customers more than one third off transactions”. Ablett believes that Halifax will help Confused.com in their quest to find their customers the “best, most suitable quotes” which are always tailored to individual needs.

Confused.com should certainly be your first choice when looking for a good deal on home insurance. The website allows you to search quickly for home insurance quotes and enables you to find the best buildings and contents deals available on the market. The company has estimated that this year its customers have saved an average of £193 on home insurance.

However, you should remember that it also offers good deals on car insurance. It has a total of 77 motor insurance partners and you could save more than £200 if you use its services.

For the large majority of people living in the United Kingdom, Halloween provides a good excuse to dress up in a silly costume and eat ridiculous amounts of sweets and chocolate. Most children and young people are sensible enough to realise that the homeowners whom they pester for sugary delights deserve to enjoy Halloween as well. However, for some people Halloween brings nothing but fear and a severe – and certainly unwanted – dent to the wallet.

Some young people think that it is acceptable to combine traditional ‘trick or treat’ with vandalism. Saga Home Insurance has recently conducted research into the potential negative effects of trick or treating. The company found that one in seven of those questioned have had to pay out for damage caused by tricks turned nasty.

The average amount paid out by these people was found to be £117. However, one in ten of those questioned have had to fork out more than £250. The home insurance company also revealed that last year, during the month of September, they were forced to pay out more than £100,000 for malicious damage claims.

The Chief Executive of Saga Home Insurance, Andrew Goodsell, was keen to downplay the results of the research. He stated that the research is not meant to scare people and stop them having a good time at Halloween, since “for most people Halloween will end without incident”. However, he revealed that the company is desperate for people to check their home insurance cover “in case the vandals strike”.

With Bonfire Night behind us and New Year’s Eve approaching, the Cheshire Building Society has made a point of reminding us that now is just the right time to give our home insurance policies a quick review. This gentle reminder from the building society has been timed to coincide with the offer of a 25% discount on its content insurance premium for consumers who choose to purchase its Select buildings and contents policy.

It really is worth checking your home insurance policy before setting off to find the cheapest deals on fireworks. Every year, celebrations are ruined by accidents and damage to homes or gardens. One stray firework can cause a lot of damage within a very short space of time. Insurance policies will automatically protect your home but some do not necessarily offer home emergency cover and many do not provide cover for damage in your garden.

Here are some tips, provided by the building society, to help you keep safe:

• Always store your fireworks in a safe, dry place.
• Only purchase fireworks from a registered retailer, even though they may not offer the best deals.
• Construct your bonfire in a logical position, far away from your property.
• Supervise children and guests at all times.
• Keep pets indoors at all times, preferably in a room which will not suffer from too much noise.
• Make sure that you know how to set off fireworks and position them well away from your guests.

Norwich Union has released research which shows that one in three people think that their home has become more vulnerable since the start of the credit crunch. The same piece of research also found that over a third of people questioned start to fear burglary once the clocks go back.

Norwich Union also released another piece of information regarding basic security. The company found that a stunning 20% of people do not bother to lock their doors or windows when they go to sleep at night. Furthermore, approximately 15% admit that they do not close their windows prior to leaving the house during the day. About a quarter of those questioned admitted that they never think about basic home security.

As a result of this alarming research, the company has teamed up with Norfolk Police to launch a campaign entitled ‘Safer Street’. A street of Victorian terraces in Norwich has been transformed over the last three months, with the campaign bringing in basic yet highly effective crime-reduction schemes. The houses on the street were provided with gating, walls, fencing, additional lighting, new locks, and many other features.

Simon Warsop, director of home pricing at Norwich Union, is keen to encourage people to do all they can to protect themselves and their homes, particularly with longer nights approaching. He believes that whilst insurance is there to provide peace of mind if the worst case scenario does occur, people should be made more aware of basic security measures.