The Rural Shops Alliance recognises that crime, or even just the fear of crime, can often be a major issue for rural shopkeepers. In recent years, police forces have been targeted by the Government, and have therefore concentrated their attention, on domestic rather than business crime, and in many parts of the country they inevitably prioritise resources onto urban rather than rural areas. Additionally, new national and local initiatives in fighting crime concentrate largely on town and city centres, shopping centres, industrial estates etc.. If the effects of all these factors are combined, then it is not too surprising to discover that rural shops can easily be perceived to be an easy target.

This problem is compounded yet further by the fact that impartial crime reduction advice seems to be ever harder to obtain, especially for those who do not have access to the internet, and therefore the RSA has been pleased to be part of a major piece of work commissioned by the Home Office to address the problem of crime against small businesses, including retailers, and to identify some new initiatives.

This work is likely to continue on into 2006, but there are already some outputs from the work which are of direct relevance to small retailers.

In particular two publications are now available free of charge, and can either be downloaded from this website (see"information page") or the Home Office website www.crimereduction.gov.uk, or a hard copy can be ordered by telephone. The first of these is a set of ‘postcards’, entitled “Putting Crime out of Business”, which provide plenty of handy tips on how to improve security at little or no cost, with some contact points where further information can be obtained.

The second publication is a booklet, ”Your Business – Keep Crime Out of It”, which provides more detailed practical advice on how to carry out risk assessments on the premises, stock or procedures. This will help to highlight areas where security might need to be improved.

Both of these publications are available, along with other useful information, under the Information section of this website.

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