Higher Risk Buildings - How to make sure you get your building control application right

Navigating the complex world of building control applications for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) in England since its introduction in October 2023 has never been more critical - or more challenging.  

With the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) now overseeing all HRB applications and new, stringent requirements at Gateway 2, building control applications are facing unprecedented scrutiny and delays that threaten to stall construction projects. 

In response, the BSR and the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) have released fresh guidance aimed at demystifying the process, improving application quality, and ultimately accelerating approvals. Ensuring that building control applications are correctly submitted and processed is crucial for compliance with building regulations and for the successful completion of all construction projects. 

BSR’s Latest Guidance

The BSR has just published a new web page to offer guidance for navigating this process.

As we all know, and as the BSR acknowledge, passing through Gateway 2 requires more than a standard building control submission. In order to help with this, the BSR says it has “opened up a range of engagement opportunities for applicants”. According to the web page, this includes: 

• Inviting dutyholders to take part in feedback sessions with the relevant BSR operational team; 
• Structured pre-application meetings taking place with case officers and technical specialists; and 
• Applicants can submit forward plans for upcoming projects or applications linked to the same development. For more challenging projects, developers may be offered the chance to discuss the best way to present their building control application. 

The BSR has said that by engaging proactively with the BSR, developers will reduce the risk of rejection which will lead to more efficient approvals.

The BSR has summarised the three key steps to ensure a strong application as follows:

• Identify – what needs to comply
• Clarify – the standards in us
• Justify – the compliance case

The level of detail required needs to be enough to allow another professional (not working on the project) to be able to understand how compliance has been demonstrated. The BSR say applications are being rejected due to insufficient detail and not meeting the legal requirements for approval for work to HRBs.

An opportunity for pre-application engagement will be welcomed by many in the industry who have been asking for this to be enabled. However, what is not clear from the web page is how developers are to engage with the BSR for pre-application advice. Contrary to what the BSR webpage offers, the Government website says that the “BSR cannot respond to questions or give advice about: … building control applications in England, before an application has started” (Contact the Building Safety Regulator - GOV.UK). It may well be that the Government web page has not been updated in line with the BSR one, but the lack of clarity is unhelpful. 

CLC’s Guidance Suite

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has also recently published guidance to support Gateway 2 applications. This was written by the CLC, industry stakeholders and the BSR. 

The guidance note sets out how applicants should approach the sufficient level of design detail required for Building Control Approval for HRBs. It explains that the application “should provide quality detailed information that clearly and comprehensively demonstrates how the design and construction of the HRB will comply with the Building Regulations”.  As part of the guidance suite, there are two recommended ways of presenting the information to optimise the application:

• Using an application project brief, which includes the description of work and the wider context of the essential features and complexity of the building(s). The BSR uses the description of work to identify the correct people with the right skills, knowledge and experience to join the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) for the application. Getting this first step right is essential to onboarding the right MDT (part of the application process which has been indicated to take up a lot of the relevant determination period for some applications).
• Including an application information schedule with the Gateway 2 application. The schedule is intended to provide a clear and logical summary of all the design information submitted, to help the BSR and appointed MDT to navigate the design information within the application. The objectives of the application information schedule are to:
  • signpost the sub-folders/files to the Approved Documents;
  • identify the entity responsible for the providing the design; and
  • provide guidance on the sufficiency of the design for the application and the proposed information that may be provided for ‘Approval with Requirements’.

Will this intervention be enough to overcome the regulatory bottleneck?

At present, there are still significant delays in obtaining Gateway 2 approval. Between January to March 2025 only 33% of applications had decisions made within the determination period. Of the 257 applications made, 76 were invalid, 62 were rejected, 37 withdrawn and only 82 were approved. 

The impact of this is clear to see on the construction industry. Many are concerned that the delivery of new buildings and homes is being negatively affected, including the Government, with its ambition to deliver a target of 1.5million homes over the course of this Parliament. Indeed, the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, chaired by Baroness Taylor of Bolton, has launched an inquiry into building safety regulation, with particular attention on the work of the BSR. A focus of the committee will be whether the extent the regulatory processes used by the BSR is having on delays in approvals for high-rise buildings. 

It is clear the industry has had to face a lot of change, indicating a need for enhanced support and guidance. Hopefully the new guidance published by the BSR and the CLC, along with the BSR being prepared to meet with developers pre-application, will help improve the quality of applications and so the time spent in approving them. If that is the case, we can see a path to project teams being able to plan projects properly leading to starts on site as soon as possible.