Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the average time taken to receive building control decisions on applications to carry out works on higher risk buildings on the costs of those works.

Our priority with the new regime is to ensure buildings are safe and decent. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has 12 weeks to determine a building control approval application for new higher-risk buildings and 8 weeks to determine the applications for building work to existing higher-risk buildings. This is longer than had previously been the case. It is expected that dutyholders will consider and plan for any additional costs and adjust their programme of works to ensure that building work is carried out in a cost effective and efficient manner.

However, we recognise there are delays in processing building control approval applications for higher-risk building work and that these may have associated costs for developers. We are currently working to address delays within the higher-risk regime through a range of measures. The sector must also play its part in ensuring building control applications are of a good quality, extensive guidance is available on gov.uk.

As the higher-risk regime was introduced in October 2023, it is too soon to provide an impact assessment for the time it takes to get building control approval from the BSR. Under the Building Safety Act, the Secretary of State must appoint an independent person to review the effectiveness of the BSR and the higher-risk regime by 28 April 2027, which may include the cost impacts of the higher-risk regime on developers.