The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is speeding up how it makes decisions as it targets clearing a backlog of Gateway 2 applications for more than 20,000 new homes by January.
In an update recently the regulator said it is piloting a batching process for assessing applications after recognising that the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) model was “not effective for managing the volume of cases”.
It said the new system, which launched last month, will boost capacity by putting applications to specialised engineering services suppliers for “accelerated assessment”.
The first pilot included a mix of new build and remediation cases which were sent out at the end of September, with another set of cases ready for dispatch earlier this month.
Under the Building Safety Act work on developments deemed higher risk must be signed off by building control in three stages, known as ‘gateways’, and work on site cannot start until Gateway 2 approval has been gained.
Earlier this year sector experts told the government that lengthy delays at the regulator were hitting development, with the logjam affecting 30,000 bids to build new homes as of July.
The long waits have been blamed on both capacity issues at the BSR and poor-quality applications from developers, and by June the government revealed it would be making reforms to how the regulator works, including the introduction of a new fast-track process for decisions.
The BSR still has 91 of these historic new build applications, more than half of which are for schemes in London, awaiting a Gateway 2 decision, according to figures for October released last week.
But it estimates it will have the majority of the backlog determined by December and will make rulings on the last three applications early next year.
“This projection is based on experience to date, dependent on continued progress and, in many cases, relevant and timely information being provided by applicants, our immediate focus (through to December 2025) is a bespoke plan to address specific blockers within each application to drive final decisions, including the rapid deployment of resources to address new challenges like the need for CFD [computational fluid dynamics] expertise” it commented in the report.
The BSR also stressed that Gateway 2 decisions had reached a record high for August with more than 200 decisions across all categories that month.
A recent addition to the regulator is a centralised team of building inspectors and technical engineers, dubbed the “Innovation Unit”, which is managing 27 new build applications for a combined 6,000 homes.
This new workstream is meeting the 12-week deadline for decisions in the majority of cases, it said today.
While the BSR report says dealing with new build applications is a “priority”, figures for October show these are still vastly outnumbered by bids to carry out remediation work to existing buildings.
There are 253 remediation applications affecting 22,000 homes in the queue for Gateway 2, compared with 152 new build applications. As with new build, the majority of remediation requests are in London.
The regulator admitted that the MDT model is not working for these cases either and revealed it is drawing up a new resourcing model to deal with remediation, including batching some cases and creating a centralised team.
Plans are being drawn up for a specialised remediation unit, but hurdles remain, the report added, including a lack of qualified experts, made more difficult by the “heavy BSR recruitment” for the regulator’s new build team.
Further work to deal with the delays is also in motion. The report said: “BSR senior leadership is urgently exploring better process alignment and/or integration with Homes England to improve remediation efficiency and enhance the experience for residents and leaseholders.”
Charlie Pugsley, chief executive at the BSR, said “the regulator has been learning from the last two years, has listened to industry feedback and acted decisively through these substantial operational changes we are piloting, which have shown immediate, positive results.
We have already seen early success with our Innovation Unit and are now deploying strategic capacity scaling, including the new batching system. However, we recognise there are ongoing challenges including national skills shortages, and we are committed to using agile problem-solving to work constructively with the wider sector and industry applicants.
Our focus on further improvements will support the pace of essential construction without compromising the essential safety standards required under the Building Safety Act 2022 to keep people safe in their homes.”