Photo: Mike Faherty · CC BY-SA 2.0Leighton Buzzard records more burglary, vehicle crime and damage per head than 73% of UK towns
At 4.9 per 1,000 residents, vehicle crime in Leighton Buzzard runs well past the 2.8 of a typical town its size (209 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026). The town’s overall Safety Grade is C+ (#23 of 33 in Bedfordshire): close to the middle of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Violence recorded locally held about level in a year. Recorded violent and sexual offences ran at 23.4 per 1,000 residents a year, and burglary, vehicle crime and damage at 13.1.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Leighton Buzzard
Less crime than most places its size
Of 157 UK towns of 30,000 to 58,000 people, Leighton Buzzard has the 27th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Kingswinford, Abingdon-on-Thames and Didcot, higher than Beeston, Metropolitan Lisburn and Horsham. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 22% of Leighton Buzzard’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 5% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The C+ for Leighton Buzzard, and how it is built
A firm grade. Built on 4,659 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Leighton Buzzard against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
27th of 157: Leighton Buzzard among towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harpenden Hertfordshire | 30,964 | 11.3 | 11.2 | 13.4 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 24 | Beeston Nottinghamshire | 52,359 | 24.6 | 11.4 | 22.1 | C+ |
| 25 | Metropolitan Lisburn Belfast | 32,643 | 24.8 | 11.3 | 4.9 | C+ |
| 26 | Horsham West Sussex | 50,211 | 25.6 | 10.8 | 17.8 | C+ |
| 27 | Leighton Buzzard Bedfordshire | 42,736 | 23.4 | 13.1 | 12.2 | C+ |
| 28 | Arnold Nottinghamshire | 40,016 | 26.6 | 10.1 | 12.2 | C+ |
| 29 | Camberley Surrey | 36,787 | 27.7 | 10.8 | 14.7 | C+ |
| 30 | Lytham St Anne's Lancashire | 42,693 | 27.3 | 11.2 | 11.6 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 57 | Dunstable Bedfordshire | 34,498 | 31.3 | 14.9 | 12.6 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 157 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Leighton Buzzard, and others in Bedfordshire.
1 in 5 Leighton Buzzard residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
45% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 5% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Leighton Buzzard’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Leighton Buzzard runs highest on vehicle crime (4.9 per 1,000 against 2.8) and shoplifting (7.9 per 1,000 against 6.1). Public order and violence & sexual offences sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 950 | 22.2 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 484 | 11.3 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 337 | 7.9 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 250 | 5.8 | 6.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 209 | 4.9 | 2.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 179 | 4.2 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 163 | 3.8 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 113 | 2.6 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 78 | 1.8 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 68 | 1.6 | 1.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 40 | 0.9 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 20 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 16 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 8 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Police in Leighton Buzzard identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 76% of Leighton Buzzard’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 2% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 1,503 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Linslade, Leighton Buzzard South and Heath and Reach; highest in Leighton Buzzard North
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linslade | 11,401 | 13.9 | 8 | |
| Leighton Buzzard South | 15,488 | 16.9 | 10.3 | |
| Heath and Reach | 886 | 26.3 | 16.9 | |
| Leighton Buzzard North | 14,961 | 37.1 | 19.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 300 | 25% violent |
| Supermarkets | 298 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 242 | 73% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 157 | 72% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 86 | 55% anti-social behaviour |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 75 | 49% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Leighton Buzzard North records 2.3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Leighton Buzzard. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Leighton Buzzard. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Leighton Buzzard’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +10% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +21% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -21% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in Leighton Buzzard per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 13 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 12 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
No one died in a collision on Leighton Buzzard’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 148 collisions with injuries inside Leighton Buzzard in five years. 24 people were killed or seriously injured: 7 on foot and 9 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Leighton Buzzard’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Leighton Buzzard’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Leighton Buzzard had 11.2 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Leighton Buzzard’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Leighton Buzzard
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leighton Buzzard | 42,736 | 23.4 | 13.1 | C+ |
| Heath and Reach | 1,451 | 10.6 | 6.7 | A |
| Wing | 2,979 | 17.6 | 8.4 | B+ |
| Hockliffe | 1,068 | 20.3 | 17.8 | C+ |
| Stoke Hammond | 1,155 | 22.2 | 13.3 | C+ |
| Eaton Bray and Edlesborough | 4,201 | 12.3 | 11.5 | B+ |
| Stewkley | 1,421 | 19 | 9.9 | B |
| Totternhoe | 1,017 | 20.3 | 12.5 | B− |
Leighton Buzzard records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Hockliffe records more. Heath and Reach, 1.9 miles away, records 10.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Leighton Buzzard’s 23.4.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Leighton Buzzard sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Leighton Buzzard
Is Leighton Buzzard safe?
Police recorded 23.4 violent and sexual offences and 13.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Leighton Buzzard’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 42% of UK towns. Among 157 UK towns of 30,000 to 58,000 people, Leighton Buzzard is 27th from the least crime. 22% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Leighton Buzzard?
By council ward, Linslade, Leighton Buzzard South and Heath and Reach record the least violent and household crime per resident: 13.9, 16.9 and 26.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 37.1 in Leighton Buzzard North.
Is crime going up in Leighton Buzzard?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 10%, shoplifting and theft rose 21% and anti-social behaviour fell 21%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Leighton Buzzard?
Violence & sexual offences: 950 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (337) and criminal damage & arson (250), with 484 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Leighton Buzzard compare with Bletchley?
Bletchley records 46.1 violent and sexual offences and 18.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Leighton Buzzard’s 23.4 and 13.1, over the same three years.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.