IN Brief:
- BSR approved 330 of 378 higher-risk building decisions during the 12 weeks to 5 October, representing 20,471 homes.
- New higher-risk buildings and conversions reached a 96% approval rate, with 55 of 57 decisions approved and a 23-week median.
- Existing-building remediation approvals reached 87% nationally and 96% in London, covering 8,649 homes across England.
Building Safety Regulator approved higher-risk building work representing 20,471 residential units during the latest 12-week reporting period as its overall Gateway 2 approval rate increased to 87%.
The regulator made 378 decisions across all higher-risk building categories in the 12 weeks to 5 October and approved 330. The overall rate increased from 84% in the previous release, extending the improvement recorded through 2026 while a substantial volume of residential work remains dependent on regulatory clearance before construction or remediation can proceed.
New higher-risk buildings and conversions recorded the strongest approval rate. BSR approved 55 of 57 decisions, or 96%, representing 11,822 homes. The median approval time was 23 weeks nationally, while London recorded a 97% approval rate and 22-week median across projects representing 6,855 units.
The new-build rate has risen markedly from the position recorded a year earlier, when approval levels were substantially lower and determination periods longer. The latest figures do not show every higher-risk project being decided within its statutory target, but a larger proportion of completed decisions are now ending in approval.
External remediation has also continued to improve. The national approval rate reached 87%, representing 8,649 homes, compared with 32% 12 months earlier. London recorded 52 approvals and a 96% approval rate, covering 4,643 units during the rolling period.
Remediation applications can carry different assessment demands from new developments because teams have to establish the condition and fire-safety arrangements of an existing building before judging whether the proposed intervention demonstrates compliance. Historic information may be incomplete, while intrusive surveys can reveal conditions that were not visible when the original application material was assembled.
Occupied buildings add another delivery constraint. Remediation often has to be sequenced around residents remaining in their homes, which can affect temporary protection, access, scaffolding, service interruptions and the order in which façade or fire-safety work progresses.
Gateway 2 acts as a statutory hold point for higher-risk building work in England. Relevant construction cannot begin while approval is outstanding, making determination periods part of the project programme alongside procurement, financing, planning conditions and major utility connections.
Design teams therefore need sufficient coordinated information to demonstrate compliance before mobilisation. Structural design, fire strategy, façade construction and building-services information cannot be left as broad concepts where the regulator requires evidence that the proposed building work meets the Building Regulations.
The 20,471 residential units attached to approved decisions have cleared that statutory stage, although approval does not mean every scheme will immediately begin construction. Individual projects may still have to complete contractor procurement, financing, enabling works or other pre-start requirements.
The latest figures arrive as BSR deals with a sharp increase in new-build submissions. September brought 64 new higher-risk building applications, compared with 34 in August, 17 in July and 12 in June. The regulator had anticipated greater activity before the Building Safety Levy took effect on 1 October and activated contingency arrangements around the additional workload.
Those arrangements include triage and additional scrutiny before rejection. BSR has warned that applications containing significant compliance gaps can be rejected rather than remaining within the assessment process while fundamental information is assembled, although rejection can carry substantial consequences for project programme and viability.
Approval rate and determination time consequently measure different parts of performance. A larger share of completed applications can be approved while older or more complex cases continue to influence the median number of weeks required for a decision.
The mix of applications also changes between rolling reporting periods. A month containing more complex remediation submissions cannot be compared directly with one dominated by mature new-build applications without considering the underlying case mix and the point at which each application entered assessment.
The previous IN Site update found that new-build and conversion approvals had reached 92% during the period to the end of August, with a 22-week median. The latest data lifts that approval rate to 96%, while the median has increased slightly to 23 weeks.
At the end of August, BSR was managing 1,654 Gateway 2 applications across new build, remediation, internal refurbishment, NHS work and transitional cases. September’s higher new-build submission volume adds further work to a system also dealing with construction-stage change requests and the development of Gateway 3 processes.
Major design changes after Gateway 2 approval can create another regulatory interface because structural, fire, façade and building-services systems are closely connected in higher-risk buildings. Altering one element can require supporting evidence elsewhere before the changed work can proceed.
Project teams are therefore managing a sequence of regulatory controls rather than a single pre-construction approval. Gateway 2 governs entry into relevant building work, change-control procedures apply during construction and Gateway 3 creates a further hold point before occupation.
The latest 87% overall approval rate shows more applications reaching successful decisions, while the remediation figures indicate a substantial improvement from the previous year. Performance through the next reporting periods will show whether those rates can be maintained after September’s rise in new submissions and as approved projects generate additional construction-stage regulatory work.
