The Building Safety Regulator’s latest building control gateway 2 update shows an increase in approval rates across all categories of applications, including existing building safety projects, following its introduction of an external remediation plan in April.
For new builds, the now established Innovation Unit saw a 90% approval rate during this 12-week rolling period, with decisions overtaking the number of new cases received during the last 12 weeks.
Highlights to 30 May 2026 (12 week rolling period)
- Across all categories, 358 gateway 2 decisions were made by BSR in the 12 weeks to 30 May 2026, with a 75% approval rate. 65% of all decisions across all categories related to London cases.
- Applications representing 14,928 units were determined, of which 9,499 (64%) were approvals. There are currently 38,775 in progress live case units. New applications for 13,964 residential units were received in the rolling 12 weeks to 30 May.
- 90% of decisions (28 out of 31) made by the Innovation Unit (IU) in the last 12 weeks were approvals. London saw a 100% approval rate for its 19 case decisions. This reflects the additional work and engagement with applicants to enable the delivery of safe homes.
- Operational improvements to achieve BSR’s external remediation improvement plan’s aim of reducing average decision times have seen approval rates in this rolling 12-week period rise to 79%. This is considerably higher than 2026’s end of year minimum 65% target.
- Following the introduction of the plan in April, 16 legacy remediation applications from 2024 now remain. A further 10 applications are on track to be determined in June. This is down from 42 outstanding at the beginning of 2026.
Across all categories, 358 gateway 2 decisions were made by BSR in the 12 weeks to 30 May 2026, with a 75% approval rate. 65% of all decisions across all gateway 2 categories related to London cases.
New applications representing 13,964 residential units were received with 14,928 units determined, of which 9,499 were approvals. There are currently 38,775 units in live cases.
New build applications continue to move through the Innovation Unit (IU) with a growing number of decisions and a rising approval rate.
The IU made 31 decisions with 28 approvals (90%), of which 19 were in London, during the last 12 weeks.
Approvals in London demonstrated a 100% rate over the last 12 weeks, reflecting BSR’s ongoing work to support complex cases.
All-time IU approvals now stand at 43, with a median approval time of 22 weeks. This reflects the significant effort to work through issues and to enable safe homes.
It continues to work closely with industry on consistency to reduce the number of complex cases in the system. The IU is currently managing 131 applications, representing 30,369 units.
Operational improvements and intensive work to improve quality of applications has seen approval rates rising to 79% over the last 12 weeks. This is well above the minimum 65% end of year target for 2026.
Following on from BSR’s external remediation improvement plan’s introduction in April, 16 legacy 2024 applications now remain from 42 at the start of 2026. A further 10 applications are on track to be determined in June.
External remediation-driven guidance was published with the plan, alongside feedback and further support to applicants.
Further resources and support will be introduced this year as we continue to work closely with the sector to help applicants improve quality of applications.
Data shows 2026 applications are progressing more rapidly than earlier applications. Whilst average approval time is 39 weeks in a rolling 12-week period, this is being skewed by our focus on closing out the older 2024/2025 applications.
Decisions across the capital continue to be the majority of all closed cases. Over the last 12 weeks, 65% of decisions across all gateway 2 categories were for projects located in the capital.
During this period, 472 applications were closed in the capital, with 436 new applications received.
Currently, 66% of all in progress Innovation Unit applications are based in London. This represents 58% of the overall residential units the unit is handling. The total number of live London applications across all categories is 894.
The median time from a case being issued to a supplier to a decision is 12-14 weeks depending on the type of application, under BSR’s batching process.
This pilot process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised engineering services suppliers for accelerated assessment, with BSR maintaining regulatory oversight.
The primary goal of batching is to accelerate backlog resolution in new build and remediation applications.
Charlie Pugsley, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Building Safety Regulator, said: “We continue to see positive improvements in numbers of approvals for both new build and existing building remediation cases, as well as significantly faster decision times.
“This includes continued positive results from our Innovation Unit by working closely with applicants to safely resolve complex technical challenges. This positive engagement has seen a growing number of decisions and rising approval rates.
“We are also making important improvements following the recent introduction of our external remediation improvement plan, with existing building approval rates of 79% over the last 12 weeks already above our minimum 65% target for the year.
“However, we recognise that people living in other unremediated buildings still want them to be fixed safely, and at pace.
“We continue to work to accelerate our assessments, decisions and approvals, and to improve consistency, ensuring industry can build new and make existing buildings safe, so thousands of residents see essential safety improvements they deserve.
“But we remain steadfastly committed to continuous improvement, ensuring accelerated decision-making for any HRB, either for new build or for existing buildings, must never come at the cost of building safety.”
