The Anfield area of Liverpool has been identified as mainland Britain's most expensive postcode to insure a family car by insurance broker the AA, which names Perth and the Scottish Highlands as the cheapest.

Streets near the Liverpool and Everton football clubs, with postcodes starting L6, have taken over this most dubious of honours from last year's most expensive place to park your car - the M23 postcode area of Manchester.

The AA surveyed the cost of insuring a Ford Focus in all parts of Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) and found the average UK premium rose by £9 to £369 - the smallest rise for eight years.

The most expensive average geographic area to insure a car is London at £522 (up from £496 last year).

Scotland offered the lowest premiums. Overall, inner-city dwellers pay up to three times more to insure an average family car than those in rural areas.

Premiums fell last year in the Midlands, South East, Wales, East Anglia, said the AA.

The news that the Anfield area is the most expensive area in the country will not surprise football supporters who need to park their cars in the area en-route to matches.

Local children now demand at least £2 to look after football fans' cars during games - those who decline the service often return to a broken window.

However, Merseyside police questioned how the figures had been put together.

A spokeswoman for the force said car crime in the area fell 41% last year and suggested that car crime was no worse than other urban areas.

According to Neale Phillips, director of AA Insurance: "Cars are most likely to be stolen in parts of Liverpool, Manchester, London, Cardiff and Bristol and premiums reflect this.

"But stolen cars represent only about 12 % of claims that insurers deal with."

Mr Phillips points out that cars in densely populated areas are more likely to be parked in the street, attracting both opportunist thieves and vandalism. The number of claims are also higher, he says, but premiums can vary enormously within postal districts.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne postal area (NE) which boasts both the highest and lowest individual premiums in mainland Britain.

Some inner-city postal sectors command premiums of £782 (also shared with parts of Leeds and Sunderland), four times more than the £192 in the Kielder Forest, which is only 40 miles away," he said.