Building Safety Regulator witnesses “record” Gateway 2 determinations to November 2025

76% of all decisions (ie 206) across all Gateway 2 categories during October related to London cases, making it 409 decisions since August in the capital.   

A further 40 historic applications submitted under the previous model were closed between 31 August and 24 November, with 20 of these recent decisions relating to London-based cases.  

A minimum of nine further applications have now also been assessed as ready for the recently enhanced ‘approval with requirements’ route, subject to final checks and agreement from the applicants. 

The majority of the remaining 54 previous model applications are projected to follow by the New Year.

Direct engagement  

The Building Safety Regulator’s operational team’s direct engagement with applicants and regulatory partners, along with its ongoing plan to address individual ‘blockers’, continues to see cases closed at a significant rate.

The regulator is also continuing to implement the new batching process launched in September. This new pilot process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised engineering services suppliers for accelerated assessment.  

To date, mixed-category bundles covering 217 new build and remediation cases have been successfully dispatched, with a continued weekly dispatch based on supplier capacity.  

The Building Safety Regulator is also now developing a focused plan to extend the lessons recently learned to its remediation cases in the New Year.

Innovation Unit

The recently established Innovation Unit, itself a dedicated team of registered building inspectors and technical engineers, is currently managing 73 live new build applications. The Innovation Unit is demonstrating progress in processing times with rapid validation and rejection of incomplete applications, which then enables applicants to quickly address issues and re-submit.

The early cohort of applications are now being expedited to resolve outstanding technical issues. First approvals are expected during December.  

Charlie Pugsley, CEO of the Building Safety Regulator, explained: “The immediate and positive results we saw from our pilot operational changes have established a strong foundation for continued success. We are on track to continue to clear the majority of historic cases by the end of December by engaging with applicants and our regulatory partners, seeing the benefits of our new batching system, and building upon the initial hard work of the Innovation Unit.”

Pugsley continued: “Across the Building Safety Regulator, there is a confidence that projected milestones remain achievable, but rightly we remain cautiously optimistic. We are fully committed to supporting the pace of essential construction, while upholding the essential safety standards that keep people safe in new and also existing homes.”

*Building Control Approval application data to 24 November 2025

**Building Control Approval application data: Making Buildings Safer