The UK's worst cities for parcel theft have been revealed, with Leeds landing in the top five.
More packages were sent in the UK than ever before in 2025, according to recent data, with approximately 4.2 billion parcels being posted, but this has meant that doorstep deliveries have become part of daily life for many households.
As online shopping continues to grow, so too does the concern around so-called ‘porch piracy’, where parcels are stolen from doorsteps, porches, and communal delivery areas.
So, in a bid to reveal the UK cities that are most vulnerable to parcel theft, home and contents specialists at iSelect analysed cities across three key factors – local theft rates, working-from-home levels, and parcel theft-related search behaviour, and each city was then given an overall parcel theft risk score out of 100.
Image: Evri
The study found that Leeds, unfortunately, is the fourth city most at risk with an index score of 53.1 and 9.21 thefts per 1,000 people.
The study found that Manchester is, unfortunately, the UK city most at risk of parcel theft – with an index score of 91.43 out of 100.
Manchester recorded the highest theft rate in the study, with 13.52 thefts per 1,000 people, as well as one of the highest levels of parcel theft-related searches, at 161.6 searches per 100,000 people.
Experts at iSelect say this suggests that residents are not only more exposed to theft overall, but that concern around missing or stolen parcels is ‘particularly high’ in the city too.
Other northern cities featuring in the top five include Newcastle in second place, with a parcel theft risk score of 75.89 and Kingston upon Hull ranked fifth, scoring 48.48 out of 100.
Then into the top 10 is where you’ll find cities like Bradford, Birmingham, Nottingham, and of course, the English capital London.
At the other end of the ranking, Derby was named the safest UK city for parcel deliveries, with a score of 17.68 out of 100, and according to the research, the city benefited from a relatively high working-from-home rate of 28.9%, which reduces the likelihood of parcels being left unattended for long periods.
A Yorkshire-born and bred artist and his creative team have earned the huge honour of creating the official FIFA scarf collection for this year's World Cup.
Nothing short of massive for anyone from our part of the world.
The local legend in question is Tom Pitts, who was born in Sheffield and is now based just beyond Leeds, leading the campaign right from the helm.
Hand Drawn Pixels is a graphic design and digital studio based in Otley, and while you'll see plenty of folks wearing football shirts and even the odd scarf on the town's famous pub crawl, these lot are venturing on an entirely different kind of run this summer.
In fact, the work has very much already started, with Tom and co. collaborating directly with FIFA and US manufacturers, Global Scarves, to create the World Cup collection.
With this year's tournament obviously taking place across America, Mexico and Canada, they've joined up with a big LLC, but they describe themselves as "a true English custom scarf company with American parents."
In their words, "We knit scarves for clients all over the world", with a presence both near Leeds and over in Seattle, Washington.
The fixtures themselves kick off next month (England's first game coming against Croatia on 17 June), and so Hand Drawn Pixels have been hard at work meeting the briefs for each of the nations taking part.
Here's a quick breakdown of how the opportunity came about, their vision for the project, and how everything starts for them as a whole process.
You can see more of their work HERE, but as the brand name would suggest, it's pretty simple to begin with: nothing more than a pencil.
It's worth noting that the 2026 World Cup also featured the largest number of teams in the competition's history: 48 qualified national squads, to be exact. So, technically, they've had even more designing to do than they theoretically would have in any of the previous years, too.
Tom confessed that winning this bid is obviously a big deal on its own and that seeing his creations being worn in person by supporters at the stadiums will be a "surreal" experience.
Speaking exclusively with The Hoot, he said: "It’s been an amazing creative challenge for us to truly reflect the individuality and diversity of the nations competing in this prestigious tournament on such an iconic product as the football scarf."
He went on to add that "the whole project has been a huge learning experience, gaining deeper cultural insight into every nation involved."
We can't wait to cast eyes upon a sea of colour and finely crafted fabric in unique but somehow universally familiar patterns, all designed right here in 'God's Own Country'.
Morrissey announces limited run of UK tour dates – but skips one key city
Danny Jones
Veteran British musician Morrissey has just announced a very limited run of tour dates across the UK, including one right here in Leeds.
He's also overlooked one very obvious location...
The iconic singer-songwriter, legendary lyricist and former Smiths frontman is a controversial one these days, but he still has a fervent following of die-hards.
With that in mind, despite some recent cancellations, Morrissey will be coming to just a handful of British cities later this year.
🚨NEW SHOW ALERT!
Live In Concert, Morrissey is bringing his tour to Leeds! 📆Saturday, 19th December 2026
🎫Venue Presale - Wed 20th May, 2026 🎟️General On Sale - Friday 22 may, 2026
Selecting just five cities to play in winter 2026, these latest live shows will be in support of his most recent record, Make-Up Is a Lie.
The 14th studio LP of his solo career, the reviews have been almost as divisive as the man himself, but his most passionate fans have praised it as one of his best.
Have you listened to it yet?
Most notably on this tour, however, the Greater Manchester-born artist has chosen to skip performing in his home city for some reason.
He did make his Co-op Live debut last June, but this time, his only Northern gigs in England are the first direct arena and a night in Liverpool.
We'd be foolish if we didn't mention that 'Moz' caused a bit of a stir by scrapping some slots earlier this year simply due to 'tiredness' - hence memes like this:
The other dates include Cardiff, Brighton and Glasgow, following his sold-out stadium show at The O2 in London this past February, with tickets going on sale next week.
If you're confident of him turning up to Yorkshire on time for his set in December, you can sign up for venue presale from next Wednesday, 20 May, with general admission going live at 9am the following Friday (22 May).
Emily Sergeant -
19th May 2026 
