Two thirds of gateway 2 decisions in last three months were green lights, Building Safety Regulator says

The Building Safety Regulator has that the percentage of gateway 2 decisions being given the green light was more than two-thirds in the past three months.

In its latest update, the regulator said 284 gateway 2 decisions were made un the 12 we4ks to 29 March with 67% given the all-clear.

It added that that 61% of decisions, 19 out of 31, made by the Innovation Unit (IU) in the last 12 weeks were approvals.

“This means the 12-week rolling approval rate (less invalidations and withdrawals) is significantly up from last month, with a median approval time of 22 weeks.”

In the update, the BSR added: “It demonstrates a continuing positive momentum against a backdrop of increasing decisions, improvements from its pilot batching process for applications and a focus on existing remediation projects.”

And it said legacy cases have reduced to two, with 13 long-term cases with significant technical challenges now transferred to a complex case category.

New applications representing 12,975 residential units were received and applications representing 16,721 units were determined, of which 10,165 (61%) were approvals, the BSR said. There are currently 28,761 units in live cases, it added

And it said that 62% of all decisions across all gateway 2 categories over the past 12 weeks also related to London cases, with 372 applications closed in the capital over the period. “London cases continue to be a key area of focus,” the BSR added.

It also said batching up applications was beginning to have an impact on waiting times.

“Initial data shows that processing times under the batching model are significantly quicker than the previous model.

“The process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised external suppliers for accelerated assessment, with BSR maintaining full regulatory oversight.

“Across all three major categories – new build, remediation and refurbishment – the median time from a case being issued to a supplier to them returning a full assessment is just four weeks.”

The BSR said that it was preparing to issue more updated guidance on applications for remediation work later this month.

“To put a clearer focus on the existing high-rise buildings, a remediation improvement plan sets out how we intend to increase resources, improve processes and continue to work with applicants to improve application quality.

“As part of the plan, initial guidance will be published in early April alongside improved feedback and support provided to applicants.”

It said that 92 remediation decisions were made over the last 12 weeks, with an approval rate of 61%. This is compared to 228 decisions made throughout the whole of 2025. In all, 97 new cases were received during this period with 299 live cases now being processed, representing 25,921 units.

Charlie Pugsley, acting chief executive officer of the Building Safety Regulator, said: “We continue to see improvements to numbers of approvals for new build and remediation cases and the time taken to get to a decision.

“The data we have published reinforces the significant improvements we have seen when you look at where we were in July 2025, with median decision times of 51.5 weeks.

“A big part of our work to drive improvements is now focused on improving technical consistency in the sector and ensuring that learning from challenging designs or applications is shared. So, we have less complex cases to work through, further reducing decision times.”

But he admitted: “We recognise the need to push further on existing buildings. That is why our remediation improvement plan provides targeted measures to bolster our resources and support industry in submitting higher-quality applications.”