The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is also working with government to ensure it has the resources required to meet the volume of building control applications
With delays in processing applications and issues surrounding the quality of submissions into the new gateway process, the government was asked in parliament about the potential impact these issues may have on housebuilding targets.
Responding in a written statement on 7 May, Alex Norris MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities, and Local Government), outlined the “significant measures” being taken by BSR and the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG) to “address the current challenges”.
He wrote, “MHCLG and BSR jointly keep BSR’s operational set up under review and are undertaking a further programme of enhancements. MHCLG is exploring all possible options with the BSR to ensure it is equipped for the high demand of applications.”
Norris referenced the additional funding provided to the BSR in recent months to build up capacity amongst its building control caseworkers and in-house technical specialists. He said, “the benefits of this additional funding will continue to scale up in the coming months.”
Alongside the planned increased capacity, the minister outlined the work being done by the BSR to “work with the Construction Leadership Council and other representative bodies to support industry written guidance, as part of a “systematic review of all of its building safety guidance and service content to identify where improvements are needed.”
Norris also called on the industry to “take responsibility for the projects it delivers” in a bid to reduce the “significant number of poor quality applications that do not meet the regulatory standard”. He explained how the additional work involved in dealing with the low quality submissions were “contributing to overall processing times resulting in delays.”
Explaining the importance of the gateway process, which has been operational since October 2023, he described it as “a departmental priority to facilitate both new homes and remediation projects and to ensure that failings that led to the Grenfell Tower tragedy do not happen again.”
Recognising that changes brought about by the new system are still “bedding in”, he said that “both MHCLG and the BSR welcome direct engagement with industry and are prioritising the need to improve the rate in which applications can progress through the system first time, lessening the rate of invalidated and rejected applications.”
As previously reported by the FPA, industry leaders and representatives of the BSR have been highlighting the issues surrounding the gateway process, and in his statement, Norris explained that he had hosted a roundtable on 28 April with the BSR and developers “to discuss industry’s concerns”.