Home Security Tips | Outdoor security measures

It is essential that you consider your property as a whole - both the house and the rest of the land - when reviewing your home security arrangements. Your front and rear gardens, driveway and yard provide a perimeter to your home that can be used to ward off would-be intruders.

• Ensure that there are no hiding places near your front door where an intruder could lay low before attempting a break-in. Keep trees and bushes and shrubs trimmed back along pathways leading to the front door and near the doorway itself.
  
  
• Any tall trees which grow close to the house should have branches cut back, to reduce the chance of someone climbing the tree and getting into an upstairs window or on to a balcony or ledge.
  
  
• Shrubbery around the windows and doors can give burglars a place to hide while they work. If you have flower beds beneath windows, consider planting prickly bushes that would be uncomfortable for an intruder to climb through.
  
  
• Where practical, consider laying gravel at the front of the house or in the drive. It's not easy to walk quietly on a gravel pathway.
  
  
• Don't leave a spare key out front, hidden under a mat or somewhere else. Burglars have come across all the usual places, and are not easily fooled.
  
  
• Keep valuable items in the house away from the windows. You don't want to make it obvious what you've got and provide temptation for a burglary.
  
  
• Garden and outdoor sheds should be adequately secured with heavy duty padlock and clasp, and fitted with motion sensor security lighting. Not only could the shed contents be stolen, but they could also be used to aid a break-in.