Gateway approval decisions are speeding up, building safety regulator says

The Building Safety Regulator says it is making progress on speeding up Gateway approval decisions as the group said three-quarters of submitted Gateway 2 applications were approved in the last 12 weeks.

The latest set of figures from the regulator said 358 Gateway 2 decisions were made by BSR in the 12 weeks to 30 May, with a 75% approval rate. It added that 65% of all decisions across all Gateway 2 categories related to London cases.

It said new build applications were being handled by its Innovation Unit (IU), adding: “The IU made 31 decisions with 28 approvals (90%), of which 19 were in London, during the last 12 weeks.

“Approvals in London demonstrated a 100% rate over the last 12 weeks, reflecting BSR’s ongoing work to support complex cases.

“All-time IU approvals now stand at 43, with a median approval time of 22 weeks. This reflects the significant effort to work through issues and to enable safe homes.”

Of the Gateway 2 approvals, the BSR said 9,499 residential units were given the green light during the 12 week period with 38,775 units currently in live cases.

The BSR said the majority of its decisions were connected to schemes in London

“Decisions across the capital continue to be the majority of all closed cases. Over the last 12 weeks, 65% of decisions across all Gateway 2 categories were for projects located in the capital,” it said.

“During this period, 472 applications were closed in the capital, with 436 new applications received.”

The BSR also that batching up applications – which involves bundling applications to specialised engineering services suppliers for accelerated assessment – was seeing decisions being made in 12 to 14 weeks.

Charlie Pugsley, acting chief executive of the BSR, said: “We continue to work to accelerate our assessments, decisions and approvals, and to improve consistency, ensuring industry can build new and make existing buildings safe.”

It said approval rates for remediation schemes had risen to 79% over the last 12 weeks – above the minimum 65% end of year target for this year.

It said 16 legacy 2024 applications now remain from 42 at the start of 2026. A further 10 applications are on track to be determined in June.

“Data shows 2026 applications are progressing more rapidly than earlier applications. Whilst average approval time is 39 weeks in a rolling 12-week period, this is being skewed by our focus on closing out the older 2024/2025 applications,” it said.

And it added: “Further resources and support will be introduced this year as we continue to work closely with the sector to help applicants improve quality of applications.”