Summary
Adveco reports on Building Safety Regulator (BSR) data on delayed decisions for planning applications relating to higher-risk. We highlight new guidance from the Construction Leadership Council and highlight the need for expertise in hot water design as early as possible in the planning stages of commercial building projects...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), acting as the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), released data on building control approval applications for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) in England, from 2023 to 2025.
HRBs are those with at least seven storeys, are at least 18 metres high, are a hospital or care home, and/or contain two or more residential units. Building control approval is a statutory requirement, necessary for HRB projects to pass Gateway 2 – a stop/go point where work on HRBs is assessed against building regulation requirements before it’s allowed to take place.
According to the regulation, decisions on building control approval applications for new build HRBs must be made within a 12-week determination period. Decisions for work on existing HRBs must be made in eight.
The new data shows that delayed decisions on HRB applications made for building control approval of work on new and existing HRBs in England increased by 443% between 1Q2024 and 1Q2025.
In the first quarter of 2025, 155 (60.3%) of 257 decisions on applications were delayed. By comparison, 35 (29.9%) of the 117 decisions made in 1Q2024 were delayed.
The jump in delayed decisions appears to have been driven by growth in the BSR’s caseload.
The total caseload in 1Q2025 was more than triple (323%) the caseload in 1Q2024. Meanwhile, the percentage of applications where decisions were made within the determination period fell from 70% to 33% in the same period.
Delayed decisions on higher-risk building applications have a wide-reaching and detrimental impact on the construction sector. BCIS expert panellists – cost consultants whose experiences help to inform movement in our tender price indices – have reported that approval delays at Gateways 2 and 3 are having a significant impact, pushing back project starts and putting pressure on resource management.
According to the data, the BSR has not performed effectively since 2Q2024. The median time taken for decisions where an application was approved rose from 13.7 weeks in 1Q2024 to 25.1 weeks in 1Q2025. The only decisions consistently made on time in this period were for invalid applications – those that do not pass the validation process or have been marked inactive with no determination made.
Looking at caseload trends, over 1,000 applications were still awaiting a decision at the end of March 2025. This was a 451% increase on the backlog recorded at the end of March 2024.
In most cases, making decisions within the determination period is a statutory requirement, and with a growing caseload, the need for process reforms has become clear, with BSR announcing that a new ‘Fast Track Process’ with building inspector and engineer capacity is to be introduced to support housebuilding activity. There has yet to be confirmation of an equivalent process for commercial projects.
New Practical Guidance
With application delays becoming a clear issue for projects, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) established a joint BSR and industry Task and Finish Group earlier this year to review the project journey through the building control process to improve the quality and achieve greater consistency of the industry submissions and speed up the responses from the Regulator. As part of this process, a suite of guidance on Building Control Approval Applications for a new Higher-Risk Building (Gateway 2) has been published.
This guidance has been produced in collaboration between the CLC, industry stakeholders and the BSR. It provides the baseline principles to guide those involved in submitting and assessing applications for Building Control Approval for Higher-Risk Buildings and includes practical recommendations on the approach and submission of relevant information. The guidance suite is summarised in a single document and covers:
- Guidance Note 01 – The Building Safety Regime for a new Higher-Risk Building
- Guidance Note 02 – Sufficient Level of Design
- Guidance Note 03 – Approval with Requirements
- Guidance Note 04 – Application Information Schedule
- Guidance Note 05 – Application Project Brief
- Guidance Note 06 – Application Document Management and Submission
- Guidance Note 07 – Application Strategy
The CLC and BSR regularly engage to address the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations, industry culture and performance challenges. Applications that clearly demonstrate compliance are approved faster, and everyone in BSR wants those designs and plans off the page and onto the site as quickly as possible.
As we have previously discussed for new HRBs or significant alterations to existing ones, building control approval is required. This process involves detailed scrutiny of the proposed hot water system design, ensuring it complies with regulations and safety standards. Those involved in the design, installation, and maintenance of hot water systems must be competent and qualified to ensure work carried out on HRBs is of the highest standard. If you have questions about system design for hot water in HRBs, contact Adveco’s regional technical sales lead to discuss project demands and ensure that planning application requirements are fully addressed from the start of your project.
Download the CLC HRB building control approval application guidance document