Building Safety Act: Changes to the Building Safety Regulator

Building Safety Regulator - Delays

The Building Safety Act (BSA) created a new Building Safety Regulator (BSR), whose role is to ensure new buildings – and changes to existing buildings – meet the safety standards outlined in the BSA. The BRS currently sits within the Health and Safety Executive.

The BSR has faced consistent criticism for failing to approve applications in the time required under the BSA, particularly at Gateway 2 (building control approval stage).  This has caused difficulties for developers needing certainty on approval timings in order to progress with development, and is at odds with the government's target of building £1.5 million homes over the next 5 years.

Figures provided in responses to Parliamentary questions showed the small number of decisions made by the BSR when compared to the number of pending applications, and the government's commitment to providing quarterly figures of applications received and determined by the BSA going forward has put this under the spotlight.

Single construction regulator

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry's final report, published in September 2024, recommended the creation of a single construction regulator to make the process more joined up and coherent. The government accepted that recommendation and suggested, in its first quarterly update on its progress on implementing the Inquiry's recommendation, that it would consult on changes to the regulator after the summer.

House of Lords inquiry

However, concerns about the performance of the BSR had in the meantime been raised by the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, who recently launched an inquiry into building safety regulation, starting with a call for evidence seeking views on the effectiveness of the BSR. Sufficient MPs had also backed a debate on the BSR in the House of Commons.  

Government reforms announced

As a result, the Government has moved more quickly, and has taken the first steps towards creating a single construction regulator by setting up an Executive Agency within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government which will take on the role of BSR from the Health and Safety Executive.

Additional Staff

The government has also announced it will recruit 100 additional staff to the BSR, with the aim of reducing delays.

Fast track process for new homes

A new Fast Track process is also being introduced to speed up the review of applications relating to new build-homes. Whilst this is good news for developers, it does raise the question of whether applications relating to the remediation of existing buildings could become further backlogged as a result.

Will this speed up BSR approvals?

Developers will no doubt welcome the proposed changes. Whilst they are unlikely to solve all of the issues with the BSR, this is at least a step in the right direction to make the BSA work in the way it was intended, and build and remediate homes at a faster rate.

Authored by Paul Tonkin and Lucy Redman.