Police should stop using a lack of resources as an excuse for failing to attend “low level crimes”, the Victims’ Commissioner has said.

An increasing number of offences are now dealt with by email or telephone and last year the Metropolitan Police announced a new policy meaning thousands of relatively minor crimes are only investigated if a suspect has been identified.

The shift in policy has been blamed on cuts in police budgets, with chief officers arguing they need to concentrate dwindling resources in order to tackle terrorism, cyber-crime and historic child sex offences.

But Baroness Newlove, who was appointed by the government to speak up for the victims of crime, said people whose homes had been vandalised or burgled were just as deserving of attention as those reporting more serious offences.

While she acknowledged there would always be priorities in policing, she said the shift towards dealing with crimes on the phone or via email, was damaging confidence in the service.