South West rural crime bill falls to £6.2m, but farmers stay wary

You lock the gates every night, you know the quad bike’s registration number off by heart, and there is still a small worry sitting somewhere in the back of your mind every time the yard is left unattended. Across the South West, that worry is starting to ease, just slightly. The region’s rural crime bill fell for the second year running in 2025, down to an estimated £6.2 million. Talk to farmers in Cornwall, though, and the relief has its limits.

A second year of falling costs, but still tens of millions lost

The figures come from NFU Mutual‘s Rural Crime Report 2026, which puts the UK-wide cost of rural crime at an estimated £41.5 million in 2025, a fall of 6% on the year before. The South West’s own bill dropped from £6.7 million in 2024 to £6.2 million in 2025, a fall of 8%. Not every region moved the same way. The Midlands and Wales both fell 21%, the North West dropped 7%, but the North East rose 7%, Scotland rose 14% and Northern Ireland rose 24%.

NFU Mutual invested nearly £550,000 in rural crime prevention in 2025, working with local police forces to install 13 Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras across England and Wales in locations identified as high-risk. The insurer’s dedicated team also shares claims data with the National Rural Crime Unit, a partnership that helped the National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team seize and recover £9.3 million worth of stolen agricultural vehicles and machinery last year.

Jim McLaren, NFU Mutual Chair, said two consecutive years of lower rural theft costs suggest increased investment and dedicated efforts are making a real difference, while stressing the continued need for government, police, farmers, rural communities, insurers and manufacturers to keep working together.

Vehicles, GPS units and the machines thieves still want

The overall picture is better, but some individual categories went the wrong way. Agricultural vehicle theft claims rose 18% to an estimated £8.3 million nationally in 2025. Quad bike and All-Terrain Vehicle theft surged 31% to £3.5 million, with farm terrain and access constraints in upland and remote areas meaning these vehicles are often essential and, for the same reasons, highly attractive to thieves. Tractor theft rose 8% to £1.6 million and telehandler theft jumped 38% to £773,000.

Not every trend ran in the wrong direction. GPS unit theft fell dramatically, down 80% to nearly £250,000, which NFU Mutual credits to better marking and security measures.

Agricultural contractor Sean Jackman, from Buckingham in the South East, described the theft of his £35,000 John Deere 6630 tractor from a field where his crew had been putting up fencing. He said the thieves must have been watching the site, because the tractor, which had keypad security, was taken within 20 minutes of the crew locking up and leaving for the day. “It must have been a professional job,” he said, “they must have known how to bypass the security systems.”

📷Credit: NFU Mutual

Livestock theft and the dogs that get among them

Livestock theft is not new, but NFU Mutual says it has evolved alongside wider rural crime trends, with raids now often highly organised and involving dozens of sheep in a single incident. The estimated cost rose by nearly 30% to £4.5 million in 2025, with knock-on disruption to breeding programmes and the stress of sourcing and replacing stock.

Dog attacks on farm animals added a further, separate toll. Livestock worth an estimated £1.95 million was severely injured or killed by dogs last year, up 10% on 2024. A new NFU Mutual survey of 1,407 dog owners found one in 20 admitted their dog had chased livestock, yet 72% said they were not actively taking steps to prevent it, and almost two-thirds did not believe their dog was capable of harming or killing an animal.

The cost that never shows up in an insurance claim

NFU Mutual’s own agents, many embedded in the communities they serve, reported the human side of the figures. In a survey of 119 agents, 91% believed rural crime was disrupting farming activities in their area, 79% knew farmers who had been repeat victims, and 90% believed their local rural crime units needed more funding. Nearly three in ten had seen farmers change their practices or leave the industry altogether because of it.

One Welsh agent said some farmers had stopped keeping sheep and were giving up fields close to town. A South West agent described farmers selling up and moving to more rural parts of the country to escape fly-tipping and hare coursing on the urban fringe.

Stephanie Berkeley, Manager at the Farm Safety Foundation, said the theft of machinery, livestock, fuel or tools is not simply a financial loss for many farmers, but a violation of their home, livelihood and sense of safety. She said the financial strain can heighten anxiety, sleeplessness and feelings of helplessness, all recognised contributors to poor mental health in the industry, and that rural crime intensifies an isolation already built into remote farm life, feeding a belief that farmers must “just get on with it” rather than talk about the toll it takes.

📷Credit: NFU Mutual

How to protect your farm

NFU Mutual’s security experts group their advice into three areas.

Physical

• Close and lock all gates and consider entry and exit points.
• Remove keys from vehicles and store them in a safe, secure place.
• Park farm machinery and vehicles out of sight, preferably in a lockable building.
• Lock away high-value items like GPS units.
• Mark livestock and property, and note serial and chassis numbers of items you own.

Technical

• Install CCTV, security lighting and alarms.
• CESAR mark, etch or mark farm name and postcode onto kit.
• Add tracking devices and immobilisers onto vehicles.
• PIN protect GPS units and apply manufacturer stickers.
• Use mechanical immobilisers such as steering wheel or pedal locks.

Social

• Report all crimes and suspicious activity to the police.
• Join and participate in rural watch groups like Farm Watch.
• Use local WhatsApp groups for immediate updates on suspicious sightings.
• Use the Crimestoppers number to report rural crime anonymously.

Reporting rural crime

NFU Mutual’s advice is simple: in an emergency always call 999, otherwise call 101. Anyone wanting to remain anonymous can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers online or by calling 0800 555 111.

“I have farmers that have sold up and moved to more rural parts of the country to escape the ever-present issues from fly-tipping, hare coursing and general challenges of farming on the urban fringe,” one South West agent said.

📷Credit: NFU Mutual