The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee (IRC) is in the process of looking into building safety regulations with a focus on the Building Safety Regulator (BSR)

As part of the IRC inquiry, individuals and organisations were asked to submit feedback on their experience of working with the BSR since its appointment as the Building Control Authority for higher-risk buildings (HRB) in England on 1 October 2023. Since then, MHCLG has announced significant reforms to the BSR including a fast track process, changes to leadership, and new investment.

As the UK’s national fire safety organisation, the FPA surveyed its membership of fire safety professionals – including building safety managers, fire engineers, and fire risk assessors – to create collective, anonymised results and analysis.

The IRC have previously set out a number of questions to outline the remit of their inquiry of the BSR. These were used to inform the survey sent to our members that looked at topics such as:

  • the improvement in the safety of the buildings
  • the balance between regulating and guidance
  • the impacts on the delivery of the Government’s housing targets
  • reasons for the cause in delays to application review
  • the relationship between the BSR and building control authorities
  • the relationship of the BSR and the regulation of construction products.

The feedback from the FPA’s survey has now been collated and shared with the IRC to help inform the inquiry. Key findings from the responses showed that members felt that a lack of resourcing and guidance from the BSR is causing delays to building progress

Many of our members reported significant delays in learning the outcomes of their applications, with several still awaiting a response and the majority reporting response times of over 20 weeks. This was felt by members to be primarily caused by resourcing issues at the BSR both in terms of competency and number of staff available.

Our survey also revealed that nearly a third of members who responded had had their application to the BSR rejected; the primary reason for this being due to insufficient details, suggesting a lack of understanding on the applicants’ part – an issue raised previously by the Director of the BSR, Philip White. Reinforcing this point, all respondents said that additional guidance on the process is required.

Furthermore, the results show that there is an evident disconnect between the expectations of the BSR and applicants. All respondents thought that the relationship between the BSR and building control authorities and inspections is not currently working successfully. Similarly, the majority of responding members disagreed that the use of multi-disciplinary teams is working effectively.

The survey also highlighted that most respondents feel that the BSR’s regulatory framework is hindering delivery of the Government’s housebuilding targets, and is increasing costs and delay, however just over half of our respondents feel that the BSR process is leading to improved building safety, with the lack of resources and skills highlighted as major blockers.

Chief Executive of the FPA, Dr Gavin Dunn, commented on the survey findings saying: “The House of Lords inquiry into the BSR is an important step in improving the efficacy and efficiency of the Gateway process and by extension the quality of our built environment.

“We would like to thank our members for contributing and we will continue to constructively support both the inquiry and the BSR through this process.”

The IRC is holding public evidence sessions between June and September, with White giving evidence in the next session on 9 September. The IRC aims to report on its findings to the House of Lords in autumn 2025.