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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional resources to the Building Safety Regulator.

MHCLG and the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) both recognise the concerns about the impact of Gateway delays on investment decisions in high-rise projects and are taking significant measures to address the current challenges. The Gateways for building control approval set out under Building Safety legislation have been operational since October 2023 and are a departmental priority to facilitate both new homes and remediation projects and to ensure that failings that led to the Grenfell Tower tragedy do not happen again.

MHCLG and BSR jointly keep BSR’s operational set up under review and are undertaking a further programme of enhancements. MHCLG is exploring all possible options with the BSR to ensure it is equipped for the high demand of applications. The Department has already provided additional funding to bring further capacity into the BSR for building control caseworkers and in-house technical specialists. The benefits of this additional funding will continue to scale up in the coming months.

The BSR is conducting a systematic review of all of its building safety guidance and service content to identify where improvements are needed. This includes understanding themes emerging from user and stakeholder feedback. User testing will form an integral part of any changes made. The BSR will also continue to work with the Construction Leadership Council and other representative bodies to support industry written guidance.

A significant number of poor quality applications that do not meet the regulatory standard are contributing to overall processing times resulting in delays. MHCLG recognises that changes are still bedding in. However, it is clear that the sector must also take responsibility for the projects it delivers. The BSR is supporting applicants to ensure they are meeting the functional requirements of the building regulations.

On 28 April, the Minister for Building Safety, Fire & Local Growth hosted a roundtable with the BSR and developers to discuss industry’s concerns. The BSR meets weekly with the Construction Leadership Council to work through, address and resolve issues associated with the new Gateway processes for building control applications. Both MHCLG and the BSR welcome direct engagement with industry and are prioritising the need to improve the rate in which applications can progress through the system first time, lessening the rate of invalidated and rejected applications.