Invisible paste which leaves an invisible tag has been applied to boilers and copper piping in all Pennine properties in the borough after thieves hit a number of empty homes in Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Brighouse and Elland.

Jonathan Howarth, Pennine empty properties coordinator, said the tag can be scanned by police to provide a permanent record. He said: "The paste is invisible to the naked eye and does not wash off. Better still, each application features the equivalent of a bar code.

"That means that any product stolen can be traced as having come from a specific property."

Repeated thefts over the past three months have cost approximately £30,000. Mr Howarth said: "It has reached the point at which we have had to take drastic action. Thefts from empty properties have escalated to several times the level of even a few years ago."

"These are often houses and flats made ready for people to move into and it results in massive inconvenience for tenants. It delays the whole process for new residents and has a further serious impact through the loss of rent."

Stephen Holderness, crime prevention officer at West Yorkshire Police, said: "It's excellent that the new system is being introduced by Pennine.

"We brought in DNA marking to an area of Todmorden where burglaries had gone through the roof. Within six months the figures had reduced by 84 per cent.

"A part of the process was making prisoners going through the cells aware of the product. The strength of the evidence resulted in guilty pleas every time."