The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) was established within the Health & Safety Executive through the Building Safety Act 2022 to tighten oversight of plans for high-rise residential buildings. The BSR is now the building control authority for all new residential buildings that are over 18-metres or 7 storeys with at least 2 residential units, and hospitals and care homes that meet the same height threshold. Since October 2023, developers must apply to BSR for building control approval before starting building work on projects within scope.
But the BSR has so far showed itself to be incapable of handling the work and a lot of building work that was supposed to have started by now has not begun. There have been calls for a review of the system, including by Berkeley Group last week.
Mark Reynolds, co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council, told MPs on the housing, communities and local government committee earlier this month: “It’s 24 to 28 weeks [to get BSR approval], and some are taking up to 40 to 48 weeks. People have been laid off. People are losing their jobs over this.”
However, the minister responsible for building safety and regulations in the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), Alex Norris, insists that things are starting to get a little better. He said there were “some green shoots of improvement”.
Responding to a written question from Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, on what steps were being taken to reduce delays in Building Safety Regulator processes, Norris said: “MHCLG and Building Safety Regulator (BSR) have taken significant steps towards reducing delays relating to the Gateways construction processes.”
He said: “We have put in place a range of mitigations including additional funding aimed at boosting BSR capacity for additional building control caseworkers, who are being trained and have started to make an impact on reducing processing times. This has already resulted in some green shoots of improvement including BSR reporting a reduction in processing times of newly submitted applications. BSR are now informing new applicants to plan on 16 weeks to clear Gateway 2.
“Older and more complex applications which were transferred from private building control companies that ceased to trade present a particular challenge to the processing time of new applications, but please be assured that the BSR are focused on clearing this backlog as quickly as possible.
“It is important to recognise that BSR is a newly established operational regulator which is critical to upholding the standard of building regulations to industry. We are working closely with BSR to support their plan for improved delivery and guidance to the sector whilst maintaining the building safety standards. If applications for buildings do not meet this standard and pose a risk to life BSR will not approve them.”
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