There’s some genuinely good news for business owners in the latest crime figures. Police in England recorded 68,863 burglaries against business and community premises in the year to September 2025, down from 79,661 the year before, a fall of around 13%, according to figures set out by the Home Office in Parliament this spring. More recent ONS figures for England and Wales show burglary across all premises down a further 9% in the year to March 2026.
Fewer break-ins is welcome. But 68,863 is still close to 190 commercial burglaries a day, and each one carries costs that go well beyond whatever was taken. And when you look at how break-ins actually happen, a familiar pattern shows up: offenders rarely come through the front.
A crime most businesses still face
The Home Office’s Commercial Victimisation Survey gives a sense of how widespread the problem is. Its 2023 findings estimated that 26% of business premises in England and Wales, around 409,000 sites, experienced at least one crime in the previous year. Burglary, including attempts, affected 8% of premises, the same share as vandalism. In the wholesale and retail sector, 41% of premises had experienced some form of crime.
Those figures cover everything from a corner shop to a distribution centre, but the vulnerability tends to be the same. The front of a business is designed to be seen. It faces the street, it’s usually well lit, and it’s often already protected by a shutter or grille. The back is a different story.
Why rear and side doors get targeted
Rear entrances, side doors, stock room doors and fire exits share a few characteristics that make them attractive to anyone trying to get in unnoticed:
- They’re out of sight. Service yards, alleys and rear car parks are rarely overlooked, so someone can spend longer working at a door without being disturbed.
- They’re often the oldest doors on the building. Plenty of rear doors are timber, sometimes with glazed panels, fitted decades ago and never upgraded when the shopfront was.
- They’re used for deliveries and bins. That means they get propped open, left on the latch during busy periods, and checked less carefully at closing time.
- They lead straight to the stock. A rear door frequently opens into the stock room, office or cash handling area, which is exactly where an intruder wants to be.
Fire exits add a complication of their own. They need to open quickly and easily from the inside without a key, so they can’t simply be padlocked or chained shut at night, a shortcut that can put staff at risk and breach fire safety law. Their security has to come from the strength of the door, the frame and the locking hardware rather than from blocking them.
What a stronger door actually changes
Most commercial burglaries are a race against time. The longer it takes to get through a door, the more noise is made, the more likely an alarm or passer-by intervenes, and the more likely an offender gives up and moves on. A standard timber or light aluminium door with a single lock can be forced quickly with basic tools. A steel door in a steel frame with a multi-point lock changes that equation completely.
That’s why steel security doors have become a standard choice for rear entrances, plant rooms, stock rooms and vacant units. A few features are worth looking for:
- Steel leaf and steel frame. A strong door in a weak frame just moves the weak point. Both need to be steel and securely fixed into the structure.
- Multi-point locking. Locks that engage at several points around the frame, rather than a single latch, spread the load and make prising the door much harder.
- Hinge protection. Hinge bolts or dog bolts stop a door being lifted out from the hinge side even if the hinges themselves are attacked.
- Standard or heavy duty. Busy delivery doors and higher-risk sites benefit from a heavier specification; a rarely used side door may not need it.
- Single or double. Wider openings for goods-in can be secured with double doors rather than relying on a weaker shutter or makeshift barrier.
Don’t forget the empty units
Vacant premises are a particular risk. An empty shop, office or industrial unit with no one coming and going, no stock moving and often no alarm being monitored can attract squatters, metal thieves and fly-tippers as well as burglars. Landlords and agents regularly fit steel doors to empty units for precisely this reason: they’re quick to install, hard to defeat and can be removed and reused once the property is let.
A quick back-of-house check
Before the darker evenings and the busy pre-Christmas trading period set in, it’s worth walking around the back of the premises with fresh eyes:
- Which doors would someone choose if they wanted to get in without being seen?
- Are they solid, and are the frames sound?
- How many locking points do they have, and are the locks still in good order?
- Are fire exits secure without being obstructed or chained?
- Does the insurer’s policy say anything specific about doors and locks, and does the premises actually meet it?
The national figures are moving in the right direction, but a falling average doesn’t protect an individual business. The back door is where many burglaries start, and upgrading it is one of the more cost-effective security decisions a business owner can make.
