New Front Door Design Laws Coming 2023 and Beyond?

Did you know about front door design laws for letterboxes?

It’s finally apparent that your hard working “postie” has some serious political clout. Believe it or not, the UK government is seriously considering a ban on low-level letter boxes.

The subject is being debated, and is up for a second reading as of early 2019 (sometime in March) – and you thought it was all about Brexit!

At this point, it’s a very long way from becoming an actual law, and there appear to be a few “wrinkles” that could scupper it. But as it’s getting a second reading in parliament means that the subject is being taken seriously.

Why ban low-level letter boxes in a Front Door Design?

Of the reported 95,000 postal delivery employees for the Royal Mail, MP Vicky Ford said that there were more than 16,800 spells of absences related to back problems caused by low level letter boxes.

So the idea is to adopt EU standards for letter box heights – for letter boxes to be fitted in the range of 70cm (2ft 3.5ins) and 170cm (5ft 7ins).

Something similar, in campaign terms, got low level letter boxes banned in Ireland back in 2001.

Who could the potential law apply to?

Well, if it ever gets passed, and that’s a very big “IF”, it’s likely to apply to new-build homes first and possibly any new front door fitted from that point on (in other words, if you change your door after a law is passed).

Commentators in the industry feel it would be difficult to pass a law which made it compulsory for every existing door to have their letter box height changed.

Believe it or not, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), according to the BBC, started a campaign as far back as 1958 to raise the level of letter boxes.

You can see the full BBC article here: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46895002

Stranger things have happened (Trump & Brexit), so if you are thinking of getting a new front door, check out your options here.

2023 UPDATE:

It seems that the bill has stalled somewhat – as far a we can tell, the bill is yet to get to the committee stage: track the bill here

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