Norwich City Council spending £7m on fire door replacements

Norwich City Council's Labour-run cabinet has awarded contracts with a view to work starting next year throughout its high-rise flats. 

Despite the fire doors having been installed as recently as three years ago, it has since emerged that many of these are defective.

The replacement of a total of 4,350 doors is expected to cost the council more than £7m at a time when it is struggling to balance the books. 

Winchester Tower, off Vauxhall Street, Norwich (Image: Steve Adams) The defective doors were installed between 2018 and 2021 including some put in place as part of an improvement programme following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, in which more than 70 people died in a London fire. 

This resulted in 718 doors being replaced at the cost of £670,000. 

Following the discovery of the defects, the council installed temporary safety measures across its buildings such as secondary alarm systems in those deemed "most at risk". 

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Its investigations have now identified 4,350 non-compliant fire doors across its housing stock which will need replacing.

The authority has budgeted nearly £8m for this programme over the next three years and awarded four contracts for the scheme at a meeting this week. It expects to spend around £7m in total. 

Compass, Burleigh and Ashbourne towers on the Heartsease estate (Image: Steve Adams) The initial works are expected to be completed next August - around 18 months after the scandal first emerged. 

Beth Jones, cabinet member for housing, said: "We take the safety of our residents very seriously.

"I'm really excited that we are able to move forward with this and get it sorted."

Norwich City Council owns eight tower blocks with a total of 450 flats in the city centre, Heartsease and Mile Cross.