Crime fighters: Sliders UK launches insurance industry campaign
Posted on 21/01/2016
Sliders UK has launched a new campaign aimed at encouraging home insurers to offer discounts on policies if doors and windows are accredited to a Secured by Design (SBD) standard.
With the cost of home insurance claims averaging £2,178, burglaries collectively cost the insurance industry tens of millions of pounds each year.
But despite the contribution that Secured by Design accredited building products and specifications can make in keeping criminals at bay, very few insurers offer reduced premiums.
Ian Longbottom, Chairman, Sliders UK, said: “Secured by Design accredited products and building specifications have been shown to cut burglaries and crime by almost half.
“Given the cost to the insurance industry of break-ins, it seems to only make sense that a reduced premium should apply to those properties where SBD approved products have been installed."
Sliders UK is encouraging the window and door industry to get behind the campaign ‘Home Security Sense’, by promoting the benefits of SBD products to homeowners.
The fabricator is also writing to insurance companies and MPs, highlighting the contribution that SBD products can make in cutting crime.
Ian continued: “Fitting a NACOSS/NSI approved burglar alarm is cited by multiple insurers as a way that homeowners can cut what they pay for insurance. Secured by Design fulfils exactly the same role as NACOSS/NSI.
“That this isn’t yet recognised in lower homeowner premiums is even more incongruous given the Government’s current drive on home security. This includes last October’s introduction of Part Q of the Building Regulations and a PAS24:2012 or SBD specification as the new minimum requirement for new homes.”
The calls have received support from both the police service and SBD. Its Director, Alan McInnes, said: “Just fitting a door or window lock says little about the quality or strength of the door or window to which it is fitted.
“A certified PAS 24 / SBD product tells you that the whole unit has been tested against typical attack methods and apart from leaving the door wide open will protect you.
“Alarms can generate false calls, may not be set every day and where they cause a nuisance, can even be banned by the police - yet alarms often appear as a factor of insurance.
“In the new world of limited resource policing, PAS24 is better pay back than an alarm which, when activated, just says your security has failed.”