BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
17th annual edition
19
Protecting Lead
Roofs from Theft
Jon Livesey
M
ost people
are aware that the
theft of lead and other metals is rising
dramatically in response to a similar
rise in the value of scrap. Indeed, metal theft is
the fastest growing crime in the UK. Tis rise is
driven by strong consumption from emerging
markets, mainly China. Te UK exported 8,000
tonnes of recyclable metal to China in 1997.
By 2005 this fgure had risen to an astonishing
324,000 tonnes. As the following graphs show,
lead and copper prices are also on the rise again.
Price of copper
Price of lead
Both graphs © London Metal Exchange
Business analysts foresee continued strong
demand and predict that, despite the economic
downturn, high values will continue. Not
surprisingly then, this is a worldwide problem
and it has given rise to some highly ambitious
and well organised thefts including the case
of an entire bridge stolen for scrap in the
Ukraine and, closer to home, the theft of
two 7ft propellers, made for the Royal Yacht
Britannia, from Leith docks. Te implications
of these crimes can be far-reaching. Metal
theft afects railway lines, communications
infrastructure and electricity sub-stations.
Teft of historic lead currently accounts
for only about 5 per cent of metal theft in
the UK but it remains an extremely serious
and costly problem. Specialist insurer
Ecclesiastical reports that in 2003 it paid only
ten claims costing £20,000. In both 2007
and 2008 there were around 2,500 claims
costing £9 million per year. In 2009 more
than 900 claims were paid, costing more than
£2 million. In the frst six months of 2010
Ecclesiastical has already received 945 claims
with an estimated cost of over £2.1 million.
In 2009 Ecclesiastical introduced cover
limits for churches: £5,000 for replacement
metal and £5,000 for subsequent damage
costs (for example, water damage). An average
metal theft claim costs a few thousand pounds,
so the limit is enough to cover the average
claim. What it doesn’t cover is extreme
cases or churches targeted repeatedly and
those sufering very large thefts. Clearly,
these thefts must be prevented so security
protection, police support and local community
vigilance need to be the way forward.
A crime with a history
Tis problem is not new; lead theft stretches
at least as far back as Roman times. In the
18th century, legislation was introduced that
declared the theft and possession of such
metals a crime, not only targeting the thieves
but also the receivers of stolen metals.1
More recently, in 1964 the Scrap Metal
Dealers Act was introduced to improve
regulation of the scrap metal trade. Te current
magnitude of the problem and the potentially
disastrous impact on national infrastructure
has focused police attention on the issue.
For the British Transport Police, cable theft
from the railway network is now second
only to terrorism in its list of priorities.
A number of recent multi-agency
operations have successfully recovered large
amounts of stolen material and resulted
in the arrest of metal thieves and dealers.
Despite national recognition, however, these
operations have been few and localised.
Tere is a real danger that current and
forthcoming budget cuts will impede the
development of a sustainable approach
to tackling metal theft nationally.
Identity marking
Perhaps the best hope for curtailing lead
theft, especially for those churches that can
only aford to install basic security measures,
lies with initiatives to make the crime less
attractive. In particular, identity marking
the lead is critical as it increases the level of
risk for both the thieves and any dealer who
subsequently handles it. As part of a wider
strategy to combat lead theft, identity marking
should reduce lead theft in the long term.
A number of commercially available
products and systems uniquely identify items
so that if they are stolen and recovered they
can be traced back to their owner. Lead can
be embossed across its entire surface by
specialists such as Stepway (www.stepway.
co.uk), or A ‘DNA’ marking solution may
Lead was stripped from the roof of Tewkesbury Abbey’s East End Chapel in 2007 (Photo: Ecclesiastical Insurance)