Updates from the Building Safety Regulator - Unblocking the Gateways for Higher Risk Buildings

News from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in recent weeks has focused on how a case backlog could be cleared: batching applications, and improving BSR capacity. Since its inception, the BSR has faced criticism from industry actors over delays, lack of guidance and ineffective processes. In July, three key areas of reform were announced:

• Leadership: Andy Roe KFSM, former Commissioner of London Fire Brigade, was appointed as the non-executive chair of a new shadow board within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), with an arm’s length body (an Executive Agency) to the MHCLG intended to assume the functions of the BSR in due course. Andy Roe's extensive experience in safety regulation and leadership was expected to be instrumental in guiding the BSR through this transformative phase. He is supported by Charlie Pugsley, the newly appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer for the BSR.
• Structure: The BSR will be transitioned from its current position within the HSE to the new Executive Agency within the MHCLG. This strategic shift is part of the government's broader vision to streamline building safety regulation and enhance its effectiveness, and a crucial step towards the creation of a single construction regulator, aligning with the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
• Fast-track: Central to the reforms is the introduction of a new Fast Track Process. This initiative aims to directly integrate building inspector and engineer capacity into the BSR, improving the processing and review of applications. To bolster the BSR's operational capacity, the government is investing in long-term enhancements, including the recruitment of over 100 new staff members – a move away from the outsourcing of experts to bring the multi-disciplinary teams in-house. 

Andy Roe is widely seen as a much-needed refresh of energy, with more ambitious goals (including clearing the backlog of 91 historic new build applications in this calendar year aside from three excepted applications), a focus on recruitment, and wider planning to include a range of challenges felt by the regulator. 

In particular, there has been a marked move away from the “multi-disciplinary team” reviews, which the BSR has now repeatedly confirmed were not effective for managing the volume of cases. For new applications:

• an “Innovation Unit” established in August 2025 is functioning as an in-house dedicated and specialised team to deal with approvals for new build applications, and
• a “Remediation Unit” is being planned to mirror this for remedial work applications. 

Statistics from the BSR do seem to indicate that this is helping move the needle on numbers and on application determination timescales.

However, the success of these reforms will depend on their implementation and the ability to address the criticisms and challenges that have been raised over the longer term. 

In June 2025, the House of Lords initiated an inquiry into the BSR's approval process, seeking to understand the reasons behind the lagging approval rates. The Industry and Regulators Committee invited written contributions in order to report on the BSR in December. Giving evidence to that inquiry in early November 2025, Andy Roe noted that the BSR are effectively working through a backlog of 91 cases comprising “33,000 housing units, which [they] intend to clear by Christmas through the old system”.

Current figures from the BSR show the median timescale for a Gateway 2 application to be processed is 43 weeks, or 48 weeks for London projects specifically. While new build application numbers are dropping (reflecting the backlog being cleared), remediation application numbers are broadly staying the same as new applications match the rate of final decisions. 

Certainly, scaling capacity and a focus on streamlining processes will go some way to clearing delays – hopefully in a meaningful way which can give industry actors more certainty in submissions when planning projects. Time will tell whether this impact will last through to Gateway 3.