Sandwell Council to spend £20 million on new council house doors
A council is to spend £20 million installing police-approved doors all of its 28,000 council homes.
The specially reinforced entrances cost £600 each and security experts claim they have been proved to to cut the number of break-ins by up to three quarters.
Sandwell Council will be upgrading all of its homes in the borough over the next two years.
The glass fibre reinforced doors can withstand heavy blows and most attempts at forced entry, complying with the Secured by Design (SBD) kitemak which is approved by the police.
The first homes to receive the new replacement doors will be in priority areas, that include those with current high rates of burglary.
Councillor Joanne Hadley, cabinet member for homes, said: “This project is part of our ongoing planned maintenance programme which sees us continuing to invest in our council properties for the benefit of our tenants but will also include some reactive maintenance when doors need replacing due to damage.
“We’ll be installing around 28,000 new doors to low-rise, medium-rise and high-rise properties.”
Last week, Sandwell’s cabinet approved contracts to Lovell Partnerships and Vinci Construction after being told SBD housing developments have seen burglaries fall by 75 percent and car crime and criminal damage drop by a quarter.
A report added council officers will use police data to identify burglary hot spots to prioritise replacements when the scheme begins this month
The contracts will run until June 2022 and be paid for from the council housing revenue account.
Tenants and leaseholders will be consulted before work begins on their homes.
