Home insurance customers in London may benefit from the launch of a new website offering detailed information about crime levels in their area.

The website launched by local authorities shows levels of robbery, burglary and car crime for each of the city's boroughs.

London mayor Boris Johnson said the £210,000 scheme would be "hugely beneficial", the Press Association reports.

He stated residents should feel that if they experience some form of crime "that it matters".

"That it is not going to be lost in some great welter of statistics, that it's going to be recorded on the spot where it happened, that it's going to be publicly available and there's going to be pressure on the police to do something about it," Mr Johnson added.

However, the concept of crime maps has been criticised by an expert who suggested they are a "political gimmick".

Clive Chamberlain, spokesman for the Police Federation, said that criminals would be able to access an "encyclopedia" of where police are vulnerable because they do not have adequate resources to combat crime, the South Wales Echo reports.

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