But regulator still doesn’t meet statutory requirement as caseload grows

The Building Safety Regulator’s ‘innovation unit’ has cut approval times for new builds nearly in half in the year since it was established a year ago.

The unit was established in a bid to replace the regulator’s failing multi-disciplinary team system, which had seen a huge backlog of cases pile up after the introduction of the new building safety regime in 2023.

August 2026 marks 12 months since it began handling gateway 2 approvals for new build higher-risk buildings (HRB), at which point the median approval time was 43 weeks, with an approval rate of 39%, according to the BSR.

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Gateway 2 approval times have come down in the past year, the BSR said in its latest figures

The latest transparency date published by the regulator, accurate as of 31 August, shows the median approval time for new builds is now down to 22 weeks, with an approval rate of 92%.

This is still significantly higher than the statutory 12-week approval period.

Approval times for external remediation applications have also fallen, though less steeply. They are down from 43 weeks to 33 weeks, with approval rates increasing from 47% to 89%.

The regulator currently has 147 new HRB applications, comprising 32,391 units, in progress.

Across all gateway 2 categories, there are currently 1,654 gateway 2 applications in process. This is an increase of 100 over August and the BSR expects the number to increase in September.

“This could be because of the building safety levy, which comes into effect in October 2026. BSR has a mitigation plan in place and will continue to monitor the rate of new applications,” the regulator said.

So far, 346 applications for gateway 3 have been received, with the vast majority being for internal refurbishments, and the remainder being transitional cases and NHS internal refurbishments. No new build projects that have passed gateway 2 have so far reached gateway 3.

“While we are pleased to see determination times reducing, particularly for new builds under our Innovation Unit, existing remediation projects and key NHS developments, we remain steadfast in our core mission,” said Charlie Pugsley, acting chief executive of the Building Safety Regulator,

“As buildings progress through the inbuild phase to Gateway 3, we continue to enhance and refine systems and processes to ensure that safe designs are translated into safe buildings.”