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‘Misleading’ government advice delays fire door replacement work

Flawed government advice has delayed vital work being done to replace unsafe fire doors, Inside Housing has learned.

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Mixed messages from government delay fire door replacement work #ukhousing

Industry sources have said misleading guidance led to landlords cancelling orders, sending back deliveries and refusing payments for fully certified fire doors.

At the end of July, the government issued Advice Note 16, intended to help landlords to replace fire doors.

It stated that before a replacement fire door could be fitted, the landlord needed to have test evidence that the door resists fire resistance and smoke control from both sides.

This is a standard commonly applied to ‘composite’ fire doors, a relatively new kind of door without historical test data to back it up. Composite fire doors were used in Grenfell Tower.

However, the industry has never applied it to non-composite doors such as timber or metal doors.


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Mike Wood, a fire safety consultant, told Inside Housing: “For timber doors, there’s a protocol established by test evidence, that if you test opening into the furnace – for a symmetrical door leaf – that’s a worse orientation than opening away from the furnace. So you test on that side.”

Inside Housing understands that some landlords which were buying replacement fire doors cancelled orders, sent back deliveries or refused payments after discovering that the doors did not have test data for both sides.

A month later, the government issued new guidance in Advice Note 17. This clarified that Note 16 “applies to composite doors only”.

Some in the fire door industry believe that the incorrect advice given in the previous note was a result of the government not having enough experts on fire doors advising it.

Fire door safety experts have held numerous meetings with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), but Inside Housing understands that some feel their advice has been ignored.

Mr Wood added: “The government has to be far more responsive to the way the industry works. They can’t just drop a bombshell like that. What they don’t seem to realise is, they create doubt and confusion which hangs around.”

Charlie Conley, head of asset management at Flagship Group, said: “There is a lack of clarity on what products are safe. We can’t say for certain there aren’t going to be some more issues with fire doors further down the line.

“We want to make sure that we are spending the money wisely and if there is this uncertainty then that is something which is of huge concern.

“We don’t want to be spending tenants’ money on things that aren’t fit for purpose and are also potentially putting them at risk by putting something in there which is not going to be safe.”

Fire doors used in Grenfell Tower were first discovered to have failed safety tests in March, resisting flame for just half the 30 minutes set by guidance.

Despite then-communities secretary Sajid Javid insisting at the time that there was "no evidence" of a systemic issue, doors from five suppliers have since failed tests with 20 more test results to be announced.

This means potentially hundreds of thousands of fire doors across England require replacing.

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “The government is doing everything it can to ensure construction products are of the highest safety standards.
“Advice note 17 is complimentary, not contradictory of advice note 16 and both notes still stand.”

Never Again campaign

Never Again campaign

In the days following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017, Inside Housing launched the Never Again campaign to call for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.

One year on, we have extended the campaign asks in the light of information that has emerged since.

Here are our updated asks:

GOVERNMENT

  • Act on the recommendations from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations to tower blocks of 18m and higher. Commit to producing a timetable for implementation by autumn 2018, setting out how recommendations that don’t require legislative change can be taken forward without delay
  • Follow through on commitments to fully ban combustible materials on high-rise buildings
  • Unequivocally ban desktop studies
  • Review recommendations and advice given to ministers after the Lakanal House fire and implement necessary changes
  • Publish details of all tower blocks with dangerous cladding, insulation and/or external panels and commit to a timeline for remedial works. Provide necessary guidance to landlords to ensure that removal work can begin on all affected private and social residential blocks by the end of 2018. Complete quarterly follow-up checks to ensure that remedial work is completed to the required standard. Checks should not cease until all work is completed.
  • Stand by the prime minister’s commitment to fully fund the removal of dangerous cladding
  • Fund the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all tower blocks across the UK (except where there are specific structural reasons not to do so)
  • Explore options for requiring remedial works on affected private sector residential tower blocks

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

  • Take immediate action to identify privately owned residential tower blocks so that cladding and external panels can be checked

LANDLORDS

  • Publish details of the combinations of insulations and cladding materials for all high rise blocks
  • Commit to ensuring that removal work begins on all blocks with dangerous materials by the end of 2018 upon receipt of guidance from government
  • Publish current fire risk assessments for all high rise blocks (the Information Commissioner has required councils to publish and recommended that housing associations should do the same). Work with peers to share learning from assessments and improve and clarify the risk assessment model.
  • Commit to renewing assessments annually and after major repair or cladding work is carried out. Ensure assessments consider the external features of blocks. Always use an appropriate, qualified expert to conduct assessments.
  • Review and update evacuation policies and ‘stay put’ advice in the light of risk assessments, and communicate clearly to residents
  • Adopt Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommended approach for listening to and addressing tenants’ concerns, with immediate effect

CURRENT SIGNATORIES:

  • Chartered Institute of Housing
  • G15
  • National Federation of ALMOs
  • National Housing Federation
  • Placeshapers

 

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