IN Brief:
- The regulator approved 370 of 403 higher-risk building control decisions during the 12-week reporting period to 1 November.
- New-build and conversion approvals reached 95%, while external remediation reached 93% nationally and 98% in London.
- Median determination times remain substantial, and approved remediation units must not be counted as newly constructed homes.
The Building Safety Regulator approved 370 of 403 higher-risk building control applications decided during the 12-week reporting period to 1 November 2026, taking its overall Gateway 2 approval rate to 92%. The decisions were associated with 19,409 residential units across new buildings, conversions, and remediation projects, as the regulator continued to reduce some of the delays that have affected high-rise construction programmes.
Of the 403 decisions, 42 concerned new higher-risk buildings and conversions, 122 concerned external remediation, 218 concerned internal refurbishment, and 21 concerned NHS healthcare work. The first category produced 40 approvals covering 9,453 residential units, while 113 external remediation approvals affected 9,956 existing units. Those two figures add to 19,409 units. They must not be treated as 19,409 newly authorised homes, because remediation approval concerns work to buildings already standing.
Gateway 2 is the building control approval stage before relevant building work can proceed on higher-risk buildings in England. Applications must demonstrate how the proposed design satisfies building regulations, including the arrangements for structural and fire safety. An approval establishes an agreed basis for the work; it is not a completion certificate, and it does not remove the need to construct in accordance with the approved plans and address later changes through the applicable control process.
New higher-risk buildings and conversions recorded a national median approval time of 20 weeks. In London, 29 of 30 decisions resulted in approval, representing 6,733 residential units. BSR reported a 20-week median determination time for non-complex cases in the capital. London’s 30 decisions accounted for more than two-thirds of the 42 national new-build and conversion determinations, although the published London and national timing measures do not cover identical subsets of applications.
The regulator reported 183 live new-build and conversion applications representing 39,843 units. Separately, its figures identified 24,689 homes already under construction and another 24,833 approved but not yet started on site. These are different measures of the project pipeline: a regulatory consent does not itself confirm that construction has begun, while an application still in assessment cannot be treated as an authorised start.
Existing building remediation has also moved through the system at a higher approval rate. BSR determined 122 applications and approved 113, or 93%, covering 9,956 residential units. London recorded 55 approvals from 56 decisions, equivalent to 98%, and 4,881 units. Remediation projects can involve complicated combinations of façade replacement, fire compartmentation, structural interfaces, and the management of occupied buildings, which can make documentary evidence and sequencing particularly important during regulatory assessment.
The historical backlog has reduced, although older cases continue to influence the overall measure of time taken. BSR said the number of outstanding remediation applications dating from 2024 had fallen from 42 at the start of 2026 to five, four of which belong to one development. It is aiming to clear the remainder by the end of November. The rolling median for remediation determinations stood at 32 weeks nationally and 39 weeks in London; more recent 2026 submissions were progressing in 22 to 26 weeks, with a reported 90% approval rate.
Internal refurbishment accounted for 218 decisions, more than half the national total. Of these, 199 were approved, representing a 91% approval rate, and the median determination time was 30 weeks. London recorded 151 approvals from 164 decisions and a 32-week median. The regulator also reported 1,116 active internal refurbishment cases nationally, including 751 in London. Those volumes are distinct from the external remediation caseload and the new-build pipeline, despite all being processed within the higher-risk building control regime.
Healthcare applications were separately tracked because work at NHS hospitals and related facilities can involve alterations to occupied, operational buildings. The regulator made 21 decisions in this category, approving 18, or 86%, with a median determination time of 20 weeks. Six of seven London applications were approved. Together with the new-build, remediation, and internal refurbishment figures, these decisions account for the 403 cases in the overall reporting total.
The volume of new applications also shifted sharply around the introduction of the Building Safety Levy on 1 October. New higher-risk building submissions rose from 17 in July to 34 in August and 64 in September, before falling to six in October. BSR said it activated additional validation, triage, demand-management, senior-assurance, and detailed-assessment measures to manage the surge. Those arrangements do not relax the underlying requirement for complete and compliant applications; the regulator has maintained that materially deficient submissions may be rejected.
Although the headline approval percentage has increased, case preparation still influences the time required for determination. BSR reports that well-prepared remediation applications progress around 50% faster than poorer-quality submissions. Missing or inconsistent design evidence can prompt requests for additional information, and delayed responses extend the time before a decision can be made. An improved approval rate across decided cases therefore says little about the likely timetable for an individual scheme whose design evidence remains incomplete.
Gateway 2 approval does not mark the end of building control oversight. Final assessment and certification follow through the later stages of the regime; at Gateway 3, no new-build project that had passed Gateway 2 had yet reached final assessment in the period covered. The regulator recorded 138 active Gateway 3 cases for internal work, 16 for NHS projects, and ten for external remediation. It plans to add transparency reporting on investigations and enforcement, extending the public data beyond initial design approvals.
Charlie Pugsley, acting chief executive officer of the Building Safety Regulator, said: “Our latest data reflects continued momentum and growing maturity across the regulatory regime.” The next reporting period will test whether the higher approval rate continues as applications submitted before the October levy change move through assessment and the remaining older remediation cases reach determination.
