Third 'keep anti-intruder weapon'

Liverpudlians were the most likely to keep weapons, the survey said

Almost a third of UK householders keep items like golf clubs, cricket bats and heavy torches in case intruders enter their homes, a survey has suggested.

And more than half of them said they were prepared to use these objects, the poll of 4,000 people for the insurance company Cornhill Direct said.

It also reported that only one in five feels safe in their own homes at night.

But the most recent British Crime Survey found that burglaries had fallen by 3% in England and Wales.

The number which had been reported to police fell by 7% in the year to 2005-6.

Violence justified

The Cornhill survey found that 30% of householders keep heavy items for use in self-defence.

It suggested that people in Liverpool were most likely to keep potential weapons, and were also the least likely to say they did not feel safe at home at night.

Under the law, householders who use an object as a weapon against an intruder have to show the force was reasonable and the violence justified.

The perception is that you're more at risk of being burgled now, particularly in rural areas Conservative MP Anne McIntosh What is 'reasonable force'

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said that the findings showed that the fear of an intruder remained high, even though burglary rates had fallen considerably in the past 15 years.

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Glen Smyth said: "I think the fact that people feel unsafe is a testament to the fact that we haven't cracked this reassurance problem that there really is there, and it's a big problem."

Conservative MP Anne McIntosh, who has tried to introduce a private members bill to give shopkeepers and homeowners the right to protect with force, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that people did not feel safe in their homes.

"The government will say that the figures for burglaries have gone down, but clearly - and the survey bears this out - the perception is that you're more at risk of being burgled now, particularly in rural areas," she said.

David Keel, of Cornhill Direct, said there were easier ways of keeping intruders at bay.

He added: "Taking simple and relatively inexpensive steps to make your home more secure, like fitting good door and window locks as well as motion sensitive security lights, are proven deterrents."

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