CCTV and home insurance

According to recent sensationalist reports, the UK has one of the most closely-watched societies in the world, with more CCTV cameras per person than anywhere else.

Now it seems that homeowners are joining local councils and businesses in turning to CCTV for added protection, though the benefits may not be as significant as they believe.

Over the past year, the consumer electronics retailer Maplin has seen a 70 per cent increase in the sales of CCTV cameras, with most of these being sold to small businesses or homeowners looking to guard against break-ins.

What's more, research carried out by Alliance & Leicester Personal Loansfound that Britons are willing to invest around £8,500 on home security measures, the majority of which will be spent on cameras and monitors rather than new window locks.

However, though such a move may well give a homeowner an improved sense of personal security and may even allow the police to track down the criminals in the event of a burglary, they will nevertheless be unlikely to benefit from reduced home insurancepolicy rates.

Central to UK insurers' reluctance to reward investments in CCTV with discounted premiums is the argument that, as yet, there has not been any conclusive evidence produced to show that the technology actually works to reduce the risk of a crime being committed.

Indeed, even studies carried out by the Home Office into the effects of CCTV since 2005 have proved inconclusive, with some areas seeing improved crime rates and others no changes at all.

Norwich Union, the leading provider of pension products within Europe, is in the majority of insurers which fail to recognise CCTV when drawing up premiums for its customers.

Alison Palmer, a household underwriting consultant at the company, explained: "We ourselves don't actually recognise CCTV at the moment as being something where we will be able to give a discount on the premiums."

Expanding on this policy, she added: "I think because locks and alarms are the kind of thing that people are probably more likely to install because it's the kind of thing you can do quite easily yourself in a lot of cases whereas CCTV is a little bit more of a specialist operation and I think it's just something that is very new which, at this point in time, we just haven't really got enough evidence of it effectively reducing crime."

Even a customer with a legitimate claim who had CCTV installed would not benefit from specialist treatment, Ms Palmer also stated, with this unlikely to change in the future.

However, some far simpler and cheaper home security measures can push the price of an insurance premium down.

Burglar alarms, sturdy locks and even membership of a Neighbourhood Watch scheme are likely to get a homeowner a reduced premium, even though they may not be able to bring peace of mind in quite the same way.