The first official figures published by the Building Safety Regulator(BSR) cover activity from the end of 2023 to early 2025- and show that the average gateway approval waiting time on new build projects has stretched to 36 weeks
The BSR backlog is only increasing, according to the organisation’s own official figures. Data from 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2025 saw only 338 of 2,108 total applications gaining approval.
The 36-week wait reported in the Health and Safety Executive(HSE) figures is three times longer than the original 12-week target, as well as a marked increase on the 19-week average reported at the end of 2024.
Total BSR Gateway applications and decisions between Oct 2023 and March 2025
| Project types | Application | Total Decisions | Rejected | Invalid/ Withdrawn | Approved |
| New build | 193 | 64 | 17 | 32 | 15 |
| Cladding remediation | 236 | 49 | 19 | 2 | 28 |
| Other fire safety works | 1679 | 976 | 106 | 575 | 295 |
| Total | 2108 | 1089 | 142 | 609 | 338 |
Cladding remediation works for existing buildings reported only 28 (12%) of 236 jobs completed.
Other fire safety works, such as minor alterations, were slightly more successful at 18%, with 295 jobs approved from 1,679 submitted.
The active caseload number has now climbed to 1,019 by March 2025, up a third on 2024’s end of year numbers.
The number of applications gaining planning decisions within the set timeframe is decreasing, according to the BSR’s own figures:
| Period | Number of applications where a decision was made | Decision made within determination period | Decision made outside determination period | Decision not subject to determination period | Percentage of applications where decision was within determination period |
| Oct-Dec 2023 | 19 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 100% |
| Jan Mar 2024 | 117 | 81 | 35 | 1 | 70% |
| April- June 2024 | 149 | 66 | 77 | 6 | 46% |
| July- Sept 2024 | 289 | 125 | 121 | 43 | 51% |
| Oct- Dec 2024 | 258 | 76 | 145 | 37 | 34% |
| Jan- Mar 2025 | 257 | 75 | 155 | 27 | 33% |
The HSE said in a statement accompanying the data:
“We acknowledge there are delays in processing applications and we continue to introduce improvements.
“Recent recruitment activity is having a positive impact on productivity with the number of decisions doubling (month on month) overall since March.
“Significantly, the number of decisions made are now exceeding new applications received.
“Dedicated teams are now in place to process new-build and remediation applications, and we are introducing a new Innovation Unit which will focus on fast tracking new-build applications through the system.”
Changes are underfoot at the BSR to try and reduce the backlog
Recently the government announced several reforms to the BSR in the hopes of reducing delays to building approvals and restoring industry confidence in the organisation.
The regulator is being partitioned from the HSE and placed under the control of the ministry for housing, with two former London Fire Brigade chiefs in charge.
An additional 100 staff are also being recruited to increased capacity, as well as in-house engineers and inspectors being drafted in to clear the application backlog.
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