Regulator conducting ‘systematic review’ of guidance

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is exploring “all possible options” with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to ensure it can deal with high volumes of applications, according to the building safety minister.

The time taken for developments to receive Gateway 2 approval from the regulator has been a point of discontent in the housing development sector since the new regime was introduced, with some reporting waits of up to 11 months.

In a written statement to parliament Alex Norris said that the BSR was conducting a “systematic review” of all building safety guidance and service content to “identify where improvements are needed”.

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Source: MHCLG / Flickr

Building safety minister Alex Norris (centre) said the BSR was working hard to ‘identify where improvements are needed’

“MHCLG is exploring all possible options with the BSR to ensure it is equipped for the high demand of applications,” he wrote. “

“The department has already provided additional funding to bring further capacity into the BSR for building control caseworkers and in-house technical specialists. The benefits of this additional funding will continue to scale up in the coming months.”

The minister revealed that he had met the regulator and developers at the end of last month (28 April) to “discuss industry’s concerns”.

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However, Norris also repeated a complaint made by the regulator in recent months – namely that “poor quality applications that do not meet the regulatory standard are contributing to overall processing times resulting in delays”.

Last month, the BSR’s deputy chief Tim Galloway revealed that around 75% of applications for higher risk schemes were still being turned back by the regulator at gateway 2.

“MHCLG recognises that changes are still bedding in. However, it is clear that the sector must also take responsibility for the projects it delivers,” Norris said.

The BSR said it is meeting weekly with the Construction Leadership Council to work through issues associated with the new gateway processes.