A London borough has revised its plan to replace thousands of front doors with fire-resistant alternatives following updates to building safety legislation.

In 2018, Hackney Council announced its intention to equip its housing stock with 17,000 new doors designed to withstand fire for 30 minutes.

However, amendments to the regulations in 2022 specified that only high-rise buildings of seven stories or more were required to replace their doors, prompting the council to adjust its focus.

The initiative to swap out fire doors for many households in Hackney emerged in response to the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) sought information from the council regarding the progress of this project after the local authority secured a £1.2 million contract for a similar endeavor aimed at replacing fire doors in ten schools within Hackney.

According to a council representative, 3,398 new doors have been installed across the borough to date, costing £15.5 million.

They further explained that the updated regulations pertain only to 5,973 doors in the 137 council blocks that have been registered with the Building Safety Regulator and are subject to the new fire safety directives.

The spokesperson noted that the regulatory updates had “prompted supply challenges throughout the entire sector.”

Initially, Hackney Council estimated the cost for replacing a single fire door at approximately £1,500; however, this figure has now escalated to £4,000 due to “construction industry changes and inflation in material costs.”

“The expense of the initiative has also risen because of the fees imposed by the regulator for each block,” the spokesperson added.

The council now projects that it will take “around three years” to replace the remaining doors.

In 2023, the LDRS reported that the council anticipated that the installation of about 6,000 doors in its “highest-risk” buildings would be completed within a year.

At that time, the council informed residents that fire safety testing subjected the doors to extreme temperatures “not likely to occur in real-world scenarios.”

In March 2023, the Metropolitan Police disclosed that the fire doors, produced by Manse Masterdor and installed as front doors in the flats of Grenfell Tower, had failed testing conditions after 15 minutes, whereas they were supposed to provide a 30-minute barrier.

The fire at Grenfell Tower in west London in June 2017 resulted in the tragic loss of 72 lives.