Building Safety Regulator Gateway 2 approvals rise to 71%

Highlights to 1 May 2026 (12-week rolling period)

*Across all categories, 323 Gateway 2 decisions were made by the Building Safety Regulator in the 12 weeks to 1 May, with a 71% approval rate. 62% of all decisions across all categories related to London cases

*New applications representing 12,426 residential units were received and applications representing 17,046 housing units determined, of which 12,299 were approvals. There are currently 36,984 units in live cases

*73% of decisions (ie 24 out of 33) made by the Innovation Unit in the last 12 weeks were approvals with 14 of those approvals in London (representing a 100% approval rate in the capital), which also reflects the ongoing work focused around complex cases. All time Innovation Unit approvals now stand at 33, with a median approval time of 22 weeks

*Following the introduction of the Building Safety Regulator’s External Remediation Improvement Plan in the past month, 20 legacy remediation applications from 2024 now remain, which is down from 42 at the beginning of 2026. A further 12 applications are on track to be determined in mid-May

*Operational enhancements and intensive application refinement have seen remediation approval rates already approaching the minimum 65% target for 2026

New-build approvals rise

New-build applications continue to move through the Innovation Unit with a growing number of decisions and a rising approval rate.

The Building Safety Regulator continues to work closely with industry on consistency as it seeks to reduce the number of complex cases in the system. The Innovation Unit is currently managing 143 live applications (representing 27,900 units).

Progress on external remediation

External remediation-driven guidance was published in the past month alongside improved feedback and support provided to applicants. Further resources and support will be introduced this year.

The Building Safety Regulator also continues to work closely with the sector to help applicants improve the quality of applications. Data shows that applications submitted in 2026 are progressing through the system much more rapidly than earlier applications. The average approval time was 25 weeks in a rolling 12-week period, which reflects the older 2024-2025 applications now being concluded.

Capital accounts for 62% of recent decisions

London decisions continue to be the majority of all closed cases. Over the past 12 weeks, 62% of all decisions across all Gateway 2 categories were for projects located in the capital. During this period, 383 applications were closed in the capital, with 437 new applications received.

Currently, 64% of all live Innovation Unit applications are based in London, representing 57% of the overall residential units that the Innovation Unit is handling. The total number of live London applications across all categories is 849.

Assessments in four weeks

Across all three major categories – new-build, remediation and refurbishment – the median time from a case being issued to a supplier to a full assessment being returned is just four weeks under the Building Safety Regulator’s batching process.

*254 new-build cases have been issued through batching, with 43 decisions (of the 87 returned to date) reached at a median time of nine weeks from issue to supplier to decision. This includes the time required for the Building Safety Regulator to consider the assessment and make a decision

*408 remediation cases have been issued, with 33 decisions (of the 140 returned) at a median time of ten weeks

*For refurbishment, 758 cases have been issued to the batching process so far. 82 decisions (of the 321 returned) have also been reached at a median time of eleven weeks

The data shows that batching is proving effective in speeding up early assessment and decision-making. As rejections are often early decisions, the Building Safety Regulator therefore sees a relatively high proportion of rejections from the batching process. This is expected to drop and approach the steady-state shown in the rolling 12-week numbers as more batching applications flow through to reach approval.

The batching process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised external suppliers for accelerated assessment, with the Building Safety Regulator maintaining full regulatory oversight.

Long-term and transitional cases

The Building Safety Regulator has reduced the number of legacy, long-term cases to eight. These have significant technical challenges and have been managed as ‘complex cases’ since February.

This is where account managers work closely with applicants to try to achieve a successful outcome. These are no longer reflected in the Innovation Unit data as they’re being reported on separately.

Transitional cases have risen to 43 after the Building Safety Regulator was required to accept HRB projects previously being managed by Assent Building Control, which ceased trading in late 2025.

Significantly faster decision times

Charlie Pugsley, acting CEO of the Building Safety Regulator, said: “We are continuing to see positive improvements in the number of approvals for both new-build and existing building remediation cases, as well as significantly faster decision times. This includes positive results within our Innovation Unit from working closely with applicants to resolve complex technical challenges and then seeing a growing number of decisions and rising approval rates.”

Pugsley continued: “We are also making important improvements following the recent introduction of our External Remediation Improvement Plan. 12 of the remaining 20 legacy applications received in 2024 are set to have decisions made by mid-May, which will see this cohort of applications reduced to single figures.”

Further, Pugsley noted: “Even more encouraging is the fact that our remediation approval rates are already approaching our minimum 65% target for the year, although we are not being complacent and recognise that people living in unremediated buildings want them to be fixed, safely and at pace.”

In conclusion, Pugsley stated: “We are working to accelerate our assessments, decisions and approvals, ensuring that industry can construct safe buildings so that thousands of residents see the essential safety improvements they deserve. We remain steadfastly committed to ensuring that accelerated decision-making must never come at the cost of building safety.”

*Building Control approval application data to 1 May 2026