I was very interested and somewhat concerned to read the National Rural Crime Network’s report last month. The survey of more than 17000 people, of which I was one respondent, suggested that the cost of crime in rural areas could exceed £800million. A sum 21 times larger than any other estimate.

As the mother of a young family, living in a rural area, working for the Federation of Small Businesses, I was particularly interested to read that the survey indicated that farmers and young families are the most frequent victims of crime, with the average cost of those crimes to a household being more than £2,500 and for a business over £4,000.

I empathise with the survey findings, both personally, and from the experience of FSB member businesses. As the survey suggests, “it is a vicious circle, of low expectations, leading to chronic under-reporting, anger, frustration and worry.”

From our own research at FSB we know that crime affects millions of businesses across the UK every year. It disrupts their businesses and costs them precious time and money. As this report shows, we have still got some way to go to tackle crimes against business, particularly in rural areas.

All crimes against businesses must of course be taken seriously. But rural businesses need particular attention to reflect the challenges they face and to ensure we have a vibrant and robust rural economy. The new definition of ‘business crime’ adopted by the police in April is a real step forward. This means that If a firm does experience and crucially report a crime, the police can now effectively log it and record it thus enabling effective benchmarking and monitoring.

I whole heartedly agree with the seven recommendations the NRCN puts forwards: including fair funding for rural areas; more joined up working with partners and communities, building on rural resilience; embedding best practice; developing new policies and ways of working; and ensuring a more targeted approach within rural communities. In addition though in the long term I would like future reports to set out the specific concerns of business owners so the issues they face can be seen clearly.

To find out more about the survey it can be read in full at www.nationalruralcrimenetwork.net/