Burglary fell by more than a quarter during the first two coronavirus lockdowns – although about seven homes were still broken into each day across Suffolk.

The number of break-ins fell as low as 181 in November – typically among the busiest months for burglary insurance claims.

Police said they will monitor trends and allocate resources accordingly as the lifting of lockdown restrictions inevitably leads to changing rates of certain crimes.

Suffolk Constabulary said burglary had already been in decline for an extended period, thanks to better prevention and concentrated policing efforts, but that changes to social movements during lockdown periods had driven rates even lower.

Figures compiled from open crime data by mortgage advice experts found that Suffolk enjoyed the ninth lowest number of burglaries (2,492) of any police force area in the country between January and November last year – down 19% from the same period of 2019.

OnlineMortgageAdvisor.co.uk found that burglaries fell by 25% in Suffolk during the first lockdown and by 27% during the second four-week lockdown in November.

Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Bridger said: “Across Suffolk, levels of burglary have been in decline for an extended period, including, it’s important to point out, prior to Covid. This is down to greater prevention and concentrated policing efforts around disrupting criminals and bringing them to justice.

“Changes to social movements during lockdown periods have clearly then driven offences to even lower levels.

"However, we have remained proactive around known offenders even during this period, and have not softened our stance or avoided enforcement.

Ipswich Star: Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn BridgerDetective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Bridger (Image: Archant)

“We will maintain our proactive monitoring of offenders and disruption activities and react as necessary when offender behaviour increases.

"We continue to gain important intelligence that we receive from the community, and for which were continue to be grateful for, and we will continue to work with the criminal justice system to deal with backlogs that have occurred as a result of the pandemic.

“Some resource has been able to realign and concentrate on ‘hidden harm’ crimes, such as domestic abuse, that have not dropped by the same amount during this period.

"We will continue to carefully monitor trends and proactively realign resources to the needs of the community.”