Complaints about noisy neighbours in Watford have risen by more than a quarter during the coronavirus pandemic, when multiple lockdowns forced people to stay at home.

While households were ordered to stay at home and limit interactivity for most of the 2020/21 period, there were more noise complaints issued than there were in the year before.

In fact in Watford, there were 394 complaints in 2019 and 2020, compared to the 533 complaints in 2020 and 2021.

This makes a year-on-year increase of 35.3 per cent complaints issued in the borough.

Meanwhile in Hertsmere there were 563 complaints in 2019/20, and 817 complaints from 2020/21 – with an increase of 45.1 per cent.

Other local councils including Three Rivers did not respond to the Freedom of Information request by Churchill Home Insurance.

The data gathered shows that around 1,000 noise complaints a day were received by councils across the UK between 2020 and 2021.

Between April 2020 and March 2021, 368,924 noise complaints were made – a 28 per cent rise from the previous year, with 86% of the councils reporting increases.

Churchill Home Insurance also commissioned polling by Opinium of 2,000 adults in the UK between July 23 and 27.

Around a third (32 per cent) of respondents said their mental health had been negatively affected by noise from neighbours.

The worst type of disturbance was neighbours playing music (34 per cent), followed by noise from children or garden noise (30 per cent), parties (29 per cent) and coming and going at anti-social hours (24 per cent).

Only 11 per cent who said they had been affected by noisy neighbours said they had reported it to their local council.

This suggests the true number of noise-related issues could be much higher, running into millions each year.

Steven Williams, head of Churchill Home Insurance, said: “The pandemic has seen us confined to our homes which means we’ve probably all become very aware of noises around us.

“As we go into more of a ‘new normal’, many of us will carry on working from home, at least part of the time, so noisy neighbours will continue to be really disruptive.

“It may be the case that neighbours don’t realise they are being noisy so the first step should always be speaking to them and explaining the problem.

“If that doesn’t work and they carry on, then keep a record of the type of noise and time of day, and speak to your local council about raising a potential noise complaint.”

Psychologist Donna Dawson said the rise in complaints was understandable given the upheaval in people’s routines.

She said: “Even small changes in sound can cause increased anxiety and stress for many people, especially if it disrupts home life and makes it difficult to relax, work or look after family.”

She recommends that people speak to their neighbours, but not when they are feeling anxious or angry.