The report was released earlier this month to examine the performance of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in regulating and constructing high-risk buildings over seven storeys or 18 metres in height
The report on high-risk buildings follows the House of Lords inquiry from June, as complaints and delays in the BSR had reached an all-time high.
The complaints especially concerned difficulty in gaining approval for projects at Gateway 2.
CIOB provided evidence in the inquiry
The Chartered Institute of Building provided evidence and recommendations to the inquiry, as follows:
- Learning lessons from previous failings – Given the announcement that responsibility for the BSR will be transferred from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and moved to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) sometime in 2026, we recommended that officials at MHCLG take the time to learn lessons from previous failings and make the necessary changes to ensure they are not repeated. These include listening to industry when early warning signs are raised, proactively communicating with industry through regular roundtables and a new permanent working group, adequately resourcing the regulator, and implementing stock-check points every six months following the transition to ensure all aspects of the BSR are functioning as intended.
- Reallocating minor applications – We recommended the BSR consider whether works falling under Category B to existing buildings (other works apart from those deemed to be emergency works) could be outsourced to local building control authorities or the private sector. This would help ease the burden on the BSR and allow it to prioritise new buildings and emergency works to existing buildings.
- Providing greater advice on what ‘good’ looks like – According to our members, refusals based on missing information had become a major stumbling block for the industry. While it is undoubtedly the case many applications were submitted with missing or incomplete information, members also reported that relevant information was often included but not sufficiently signposted for case officers to identify it easily. Guidance on areas such as signposting should be relatively easy to produce and would help remove one of the persistent barriers to timely decision making.
- Implementing more consistent communication points during the application process – These could include pre-application meetings and ‘hard-stop’ points during decision-making where applicants can speak to their case officers to understand whether minor technical changes are required to in-progress applications.
The BSR is committed to clearing their backlog
In October, the Regulator announced that they were committed to clearing legacy Gateway 2 applications by January 2026, meaning 88 to be cleared in 2025 and three to be cleared in the new year.
This would cover 21,745 units that were put forward before the overhaul the Regulator underwent over the summer. To 1 October 2025, the 91 Gateway 2 applications are a part of 152 total applications covering 33,670 units.
By the end of this month, the BSR has committed to making decisions on 88 separate schemes.
An update from the regulator said: “This projection is based on experience to date, dependent on continued progress and, in many cases, relevant and timely information being provided by applicants.
“The total number of identified ‘blockers’ is greater than the number of applications, as many cases face multiple impediments [such as] staff availability, complex decisions, information needs from applicant or BSR.”
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