Building control firm’s collapse sparks jump in ‘transitional cases’ being handled by BSR

The number of ‘transitional cases’ being processed by the Building Safety Regulator has jumped due to the caseload it has taken on after the collapse of Assent Building Control.

The compliance firm ceased trading in late 2025 and has now gone into liquidation, as a result of which the regulator has been forced to take on its legacy case load. 

This has meant the number of such cases being handled by the regulator has risen to 43, as of 1 May, from 34 on 1 October last year.

This accounted for part of the rise in the BSR’s overall caseload, which stood at 194 at the start of the month, up from 152 in October.

However, the number of determinations made in the latest data release was higher than the number of new cases received, indicating that the caseload is slowly dropping. The BSR received 63 new cases in the 12-week rolling period to 1 May, while it made 68 determinations which include decisions, invalid rulings and withdrawals.

That equated to applications for 12,700 units received and 17,046 determined, of which 12,299 were approved.

The regulator’s Innovation Unit, which was set up to help speed up the determinations process, made 33 decisions on new build cases during the period, 24 of which were approvals and nine of which were rejections. This puts the approval rate at 73%.

The median approval time was 22 weeks, the same as that recorded at the start of April.

In London, 14 cases were determined, all of which were approved.

The BSR currently has 12 live cases deemed ‘complex’, for which the average approval time stands at 35 weeks. 

Charlie Pugsley, acting chief executive officer of the Building Safety Regulator, said his organisation was seeing “positive results from our Innovation Unit from working closely with applicants to resolve complex technical challenges and then seeing a growing number of decisions and rising approval rates”.

“We are also making important improvements following the recent introduction of our external remediation improvement plan,” he said. 

Of the legacy remediation applications received in 2024, 20 now remain, down from 42 at the start of the year. A further 12 are expected to be determined by the middle of the month, the BSR added.

“Even more encouraging is the fact that our remediation approval rates are already approaching our minimum 65% target for the year, although we are not being complacent and recognise that people living in unremediated buildings want them to be fixed, safely and at pace,” said Pugsley.

“We are working to accelerate our assessments, decisions and approvals, ensuring industry can construct safe buildings so that thousands of residents see the essential safety improvements they deserve. 

“But we remain steadfastly committed to ensuring that accelerated decision-making must never come at the cost of building safety.”