Micromark, the sponsor of National Home Security Week, has announced the dates for this year's campaign as 23- 29 August 2008.

Disposable incomes have fallen to their lowest for five years according to the Ernst & Young Annual Discretionary Income Study. An average household's monthly discretionary income is now £772.79, compared with £909.84 in 2003/04. After household bills and tax, it found the typical family had less than 19.96% of its gross income remaining, compared with 28.38% in 2003.

A joint forecast report by GfK and The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organiser of the International CES in Las Vegas, showed that consumer electronics will produce a healthy growth of 9.4% in 2008 over 2007, while the Asia and Oceanic region will grow by 16.5% in value in 2008, but the mature markets of North America and Western Europe will witness a slowdown in 2008.