Met Police data reveals London tool theft hits £57k per day
27 Jul 2021
Almost £57,000-worth of tools were stolen in London every day in 2020, according to data from the Metropolitan Police.
Tool theft has cost tradesmen in London more than £38 million in the last two years, and £17.5 million in 2020 alone, Metropolitan Police data has revealed.
As the construction and trades industries attempt to recover from lockdown bans on non-essential work, new data shows there were 28,338 tool thefts reported across London from 2019 up to May 2021.
The data has also shown thieves are 10 times more likely to steal powered hand tools than non-powered hand tools, with only 1% of those powered hand tools recovered.
Herts Tools Co. has conducted a study into the tool theft hotspots in London using a FOI request detailing the following:
- Where tool theft is most common in London
- The cost of tool theft per year
- The vehicles tools are most likely to be stolen from
- The most commonly stolen tools
The study reveals Barnet to be the leading crime hotspot, followed by Enfield, Ealing, Waltham Forest and Haringey are the five boroughs where figures were highest. Thefts in Barnet amounted to 1,917 – nearly 15% of the totalin the capital.
Safest areas were Merton (475), Richmond upon Thames (439), Hammersmith and Fulham (371), Kensington and Chelsea (371) and Kingston upon Thames (327).
One positive aspect is that the cost of tool theft is falling: it dropped from £20.7 million in 2019 to £17.5 million in 2020, a decrease of 15%. However, the average cost of tool theft per month, is still £1.46 million to date this year.
Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry commented:
“With eight in 10 builders reporting that they have had tools stolen before, tool theft is a serious issue. It's a shame that over a 40-year working life, a builder will typically lose £10,000 and six working days to tool theft. Aside from the detrimental financial impact, tool theft causes mental health issues and stress.”
