Burglars are being given a green light to get on with their crimes, according to the Conservatives.

Tory shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin says it is intolerable the Metropolitan Police says it will only fully investigate burglaries if the crime is "deemed solvable".

Mr Letwin says the move, coupled with ministers suggesting non-violent first time burglars should not be jailed, is sending out the wrong signals.

Police say it makes sense to concentrate their efforts on the most serious crimes such as murder and rape, plus other nominated priorities in each area.

'Extraordinary signal'

All burglaries will be initially investigated but only receive more attention "if the crime is deemed solvable using proportionate resources or it classifies as a priority crime".

The Conservatives are using an opposition day debate to attack the government's crime record.

That comes a day after Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith blamed Tony Blair personally for the UK's crime crisis.

Mr Letwin told BBC News 24: "We are sending to burglars in Britain the most extraordinary signal to get on with the job; 'don't worry we won't be able to investigate you and if we do investigate you nothing much will happen to you'."

Failing to take burglaries seriously struck at the assumption that people should be able to feel safe in their own homes, argued Mr Letwin.

The Tory MP accused the government of failing to outline a clear strategy for taking young people off the "conveyer belt of crime" and putting more police on the streets.

Figures for overall recorded crime rose by 9.3% in the year ending September 2002.

Police priorities

But Home Office officials said the figure was 2% when a change in recording methods was taken into account.

Ministers also pointed to the latest figures from the British Crime Survey, which includes offences not reported to the police.

Those figures showed a 7% fall in crime and officials said burglaries were down 39% on 1997 levels.

A Home Office spokesman said tackling volume crimes like burglary were a national priority and London burglaries would still have scene-of-crime investigations.

But day-to-day operational decisions on how to use resources was quite rightly left to police chiefs, he said.

The spokesman also pointed to the record numbers of police officers currently working.

Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine has said that prison is not the best way of preventing first time burglars from reoffending where there are not "aggravating circumstances".