Mark Reynolds tells Building the Future conference he is ‘confident greater number of schemes will be approved’ by end of year
Construction Leadership Council co-chair Mark Reynolds has said he expects to see many more schemes being approved by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in the next three months.
Over the summer, Reynolds, who is also executive chair of Mace, told a House of Lords inquiry into the safety delays at the BSR that the regulator wants to get the gateway 2 approvals process down to just five weeks in the future.
Latest figures from the BSR show that the average amount of time it is taking to get gateway 2 safety sign-off is nine months – three times the planned 12 weeks timeframe.
But Reynolds told today’s Building the Future conference: “I am confident by the end of the year will start to see a greater number of schemes being approved and we will begin to move to a steady state.”
He added: “We have been working closely with the Building Safety Regulator for over two years to address the problems we are currently encountering,
“The CLC building safety workstream has brought about significant change within the BSR and assisted industry change through the fantastic competency work and guidelines.”
This morning, new BSR boss Andy Roe outlined a series of measures at the conference which he said will eventually see the amount of time it takes to get gateway 2 sign-off comne down nearer to the stated 12 weeks rather than 43 for the UK and 48 in London.
Roe asked applicatants to make sure their submissions were up to scratch. “Not every application I’ve seen has been particularly good,” he said, adding that firms should consult the guidance issued by CLC and Build UK before making an application.
The issue has become the number one concern for many in the industry and the scale of the problem was underlined recently with Vistry and L&Q finally receiving gateway 2 approvals for a 336-home scheme in west London – 13 months after putting in their first application to the regulator.
But, in a sign that the process is beginning to speed up, McLaren was recently given gateway 2 approval for a 23-storey student housing scheme in Manchester after 27 weeks.
The firm’s divisional managing director for its property arm, David Atherton, said: “The gateway 2 approval is a major milestone and follows months of hard work and a tremendous team effort, while the support of the Building Safety Regulator in navigating the process was invaluable.”
Meanwhile, Reynolds used his address at today’s conference to admit that “the past few years’ trading environment has not been easy”.
He added: “We have all encountered the effects of higher energy costs, hyper-inflation, the impact of frequent government policy changes and increased taxation.”
But he said: “Let’s look at the positives. We must not ignore that this government has signalled significant public sector investment plans – and provided they stick to their plans, we must be ready to act, if we are to respond and seize the opportunities.
“Covid showed us that the construction industry works best as an ecosystem. If one part stops functioning or underperforms, everyone suffers. So, my advice is that we need to be ready.
“We need to get fit for the opportunities that I believe we’ll begin to see in 2026 and that will hopefully last for the next 10 years.”
Reynolds said that the net zero initiative, which has been queried by President Trump and denounced as ”net-stupid-zero” by Reform, was here to stay. “While net zero and biodiversity may not seem as important today as it was pre-Trump, I can assure you that it is.
“It‘s not going away and we must continue to drive resilience and circular economy into our businesses, programmes and projects. My advice is to keep this high on your agenda, to continue to understand and highlight the carbon content in the products that you make and sell.”
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