The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has revealed it has allowed construction to start on only two out of 130 higher risk building schemes submitted by developers since the start of the new gateway regime.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by safety consultancy Project Four has revealed that the BSR has approved 11 applications out of 130 since it started assessing schemes in October 2023.
But the Health and Safety Executive, which oversees the BSR, later confirmed that nine of the projects approved were “in flight” schemes submitted before the new regime came into force. These were taken over by BSR from two private building control firms: AIS Surveyors, which went into liquidation, and Assent Building Control, which failed to sign up to the new register.
Out of the rest of the 130 applications considered by BSR, seven were rejected and 11 deemed invalid. A further nine were withdrawn and the BSR requested more information on 13, while 79 remain under review.
Since last April, construction on a higher-risk building (HRB) cannot start until the BSR approves detailed construction plans, at a stop point known as ‘gateway two’. A building is classed as an HRB when it is at least 18 metres or seven storeys tall, with at least two residential units.
A BSR spokesperson told Construction News that new-build applications in particular contain a lot of detail – often thousands of plans and drawings.
They added: “However, sometimes this is not the pertinent detail, and frequently [an application] does not include any accompanying explanation as to how these plans, drawings or reports demonstrate compliance with the building regulations,” the spokesperson said.
The BSR has received many more applications to perform building work on existing HRBs. Out of 1,449 applications, the BSR has only approved 249 – 17 per cent. It has rejected 66, deemed 403 invalid and asked for more information on 189. The BSR is currently determining 452 applications to make changes to existing HRBs.
The FOI response also revealed how long the BSR has taken on average to determine applications, amid criticism the body is taking too long to process applications.
The average time taken to determine an application is 18.4 weeks. Applications to start construction on existing HRBs took the longest, at 18.8 weeks. Applications for new HRBs were determined within 16.3 weeks.
The BSR takes longer on average than the timescales within which it should determine applications, at eight weeks for existing HRBs and 12 weeks for new-build HRBs.
Project Four managing director Max Meadows said it was great to have some clarity from the BSR on gateway two sign off.
But he added: “We’re finding our review periods for [gateway two] are significantly higher than the average duration noted – let’s hope approvals and review period figures improve to keep construction moving.”
The BSR spokesperson said: “[What] BSR would like to see is much more interpretation of how the raw information supports the application. This is particularly true for structural and fire requirements where BSR has found many applications lack clarity on how the requirements of the building regulations have been reached.
“Commonly we are told further information or analysis can be provided later on, however the whole ethos of the BSR regime is that this information should be part of the [gateway two] package and BSR therefore cannot approve on that basis.”
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Charlotte Banks