Regulator needs more support as building safety decision backlog grows

The data, published by the regulator, covers the period from October 2023 to March 2025 and relates to building control approval applications - also known as Gateway 2 applications - received by the BSR during that period.

Neal Anderson, an infrastructure and real estate expert with Pinsent Masons, said the figures further explain the decision by the UK government in late June to move responsibility for the BSR from the Health and Safety Executive to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

He said: “With the pressure on to both build more homes, and remediate existing ones, all within as short a time as possible, it is unsurprising both that the BSR has struggled to keep up with demand and that the industry is needing some time to understand what it is the BSR is looking for to approve applications.”

Anderson said that the figures validated the experiences of the industry, as it has been clear since the outset of the Gateway 2 process that the regulator was struggling to cope with the ambitious targets set by the UK government to increase the number of housebuilding and remediation projects.

The new figures show the number of Gateway 2 applications has steadily increased, but the rate at which decisions have been made has, broadly, not kept pace.

Between April and June 2024, 390 applications were made and by the first three months of 2025, that number had increased to 513 - but the number of decisions being made by the BSR during each quarter has remained fairly steady, at approximately 275 decisions per quarter.  The number of decisions has not kept pace with the number of applications, so the number of open applications has increased, and stood at 1,019 at the end of March 2025.

Of the decisions that have been made, the most common decision is ‘rejection’.  Of the 1,089 decisions that were made during the period, 44% of those decisions rejected the application as “invalid”; 31% were accepted; 13% were rejected; and 11% were withdrawn.

The decisions that have been made have also generally not been done on time.  Of the 257 decisions that were made between January and March 2025, 29% of decisions were made within the relevant determination period.

The figures come relatively shortly after the UK government acknowledged the need to “unblock” delays to building new high-rise homes (which require Gateway 2 approval) and announced that the Building Safety Regulator faces sweeping changes.

The government has promised additional resources for the BSR to help to clear the backlog.  However, Katherine Metcalfe, a building safety expert at Pinsent Masons, said: “It remains to be seen whether the BSR will be able to recruit the experts that it needs.  Public sector pay has been a persistent challenge in what is an international market for fire and structural safety advice.”