Maps are to be released to the public showing how many violent attacks and burglaries have taken place in their neighbourhood, the Home Office announced yesterday.

The internet crime maps will use images of actual streets and parks to provide details of other crimes including vehicle theft and robbery.

The Home Office said the crime map of every neighbourhood in England and Wales would provide residents with a better picture of the extent of crime in their area.

Ministers have yet to decide whether the maps will be as detailed as providing information about crime on individual streets but the tool will not include information that a particular house has been burgled or a person assaulted on particular premises.

Under the plans announced by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, the maps will show broad categories of crimes and anti-social behaviour rather than specific offences at a neighbourhood or local council ward level.

The information will show how many crimes took place or the rate of offence per population, how the figures change month on month and, if possible, comparisons with other areas.

Ms Smith said: “The public are the best weapon for fighting crime. By rolling out up-to-date, interactive crime maps we can better inform people about problems in their area and enable them to have much more of a say in what their local police focus on. This will help increase public confidence in the police and make communities safer.”

But the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors warned that it could effect house prices in areas identified as being blighted by crime and anti-social behaviour.

James Scott-Lee, of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, said: “Whilst the RICS fully supports efforts by the government to reduce instances of crime, publishing this information will no doubt have an effect on local house prices”.

The maps, which are expected to become available throughout England and Wales by the end of the year are also intended to make the local police service more accountable to their communities because residents will be able to see the extent of crime and whether police are detecting offending.

Initially, the maps will be available online and in leaflet form. They can be searched by postcode and are backed up by graphs showing crime trends, month-on-month comparisons and information broken down into types of offence.

Maps published in the West Midlands, which has been piloting the idea, also contain links to local contact details, allowing the public to access individual officers easily.

Inspector Anthony Tagg, who has worked on the crime map project in the West Midlands area, said: "It's really important to enable our communities to understand what's happening in their areas and to help them influence policing in their local communities."

Mr Tagg described the force's maps as giving an overall flavour of what crime was like in a particular area.

Last night the Conservatives accused the Government of stealing another opposition proposal as crime mapping was a key part of Boris Johnson’s strategy for tackling crime in London.

The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science backs the plan and is holding a conference on the benefits of crime mapping.

It said: “If we can understand more about why certain places act as popular locations where offenders offend, why certain areas breed more offenders than others and why certain places or people are more vulnerable than others, then we can begin to more effectively get behind why crimes happen, become more intelligent in our policing, and design our operational policing, crime reduction and prevention responses to be more successful.”

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