If you’re burgled in Warwickshire, don’t hold your breath waiting for justice. New figures show that a criminal breaking into your home has a 97% chance of getting away with it entirely, and it’s happening on Labour’s watch.
Home Office data covering 2025, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, reveals that of 2,094 burglaries recorded across Warwickshire, only 2.96%, fewer than 3 in every 100, resulted in a charge or summons. Worse still, police failed to even identify a suspect in 73.64% of cases: 1,542 break-ins simply written off, with no one held to account.
It’s not just a Warwickshire problem, but Warwickshire is one of the very worst performers in the country. Nationally, of 223,194 burglaries recorded across England and Wales in 2025, just 13,936, or 6.24%, led to a charge. In 71.86% of cases, no suspect was ever identified. Even against that grim national backdrop, Warwickshire’s charge rate is less than half the average.
Put simply: burgle a house in Warwickshire, and the odds are overwhelmingly in your favour.
“Asleep at the wheel”
Manuela Perteghella, the Liberal Democrat MP for Stratford-on-Avon, didn’t mince her words, branding the government’s record “asleep at the wheel.” She’s calling on the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who took the keys to Downing Street in July after ousting Keir Starmer, to introduce a legally binding “Burglary Response Guarantee,” forcing police forces to attend every single burglary and properly resource the investigations that follow.
It’s a fair question to ask: why, more than a year on from the last change of government, are victims of one of the most invasive and distressing crimes still being told, in effect, that their case is unlikely to go anywhere?
Perteghella said: “It is unacceptable that families and businesses across Warwickshire are being left terrified as the vast majority of burglaries go unsolved. The Government has been asleep at the wheel, a persistent lack of support for community policing has left our streets vulnerable.
“In 97.04% of burglary cases, the victims never see someone charged. That has to change. Warwickshire Police works tirelessly but they require the proper resources and mandate from central government to ensure every single case is rigorously investigated.”
A pattern, not a blip
This isn’t a new complaint dressed up for a headline. In October 2022, police chiefs nationwide pledged to attend every home burglary. Warwickshire Police itself points to improvement, saying its charge rate for the year to February 2025 rose to 7.1%, and that it leads the country on attendance. Yet the Lib Dems’ calendar-year 2025 figures, covering the most recent full year on record, tell a starkly different story: a charge rate under 3%, among the worst of any force in England and Wales.
Whichever set of numbers you look at, the picture is the same in one crucial respect: the overwhelming majority of burglars in Warwickshire are never caught, never charged, and never face a court. For families lying awake wondering who’s been through their belongings, statistics about “improvement” from a low base offer little comfort.
What’s the government’s answer?
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is head of a criminal justice system where, on these figures, burglary has effectively been decriminalised in all but name. Neighbourhood policing, the visible, community-based presence that residents in Stratford-on-Avon and across Warwickshire say they’ve barely seen in years, remains threadbare despite repeated promises of funding.
Voters were told Labour would mean a reset on crime. On burglary, the numbers suggest things are getting a lot worse. Families in Stratford-on-Avon aren’t asking for miracles, they’re asking for their break-ins to be investigated, and for the person who did it to be caught. Right now, in 97 cases out of 100, that simply isn’t happening.
Source: Home Office crime outcomes statistics, analysed by the Liberal Democrats; Warwickshire Police.
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