Latest building control approval application data

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) made 349 decisions on applications for building control approval in the 12 weeks to 1 August 2026, according to new data⁽¹⁾.

This was down from the 368 decisions recorded in the previous 12-week reporting period, which ended on 28 June 2026. As of 1 August, there were 1,547 live building control applications in the BSR’s system.

These figures relate to gateway 2 applications, the mandatory stop/go point that higher-risk building (HRB) projects must pass before construction can begin. At this stage, the BSR assesses compliance with the Building Regulations, the adequacy of project management arrangements and the competence of project teams⁽²⁾.

Approval rates across all gateway 2 application categories improved over the latest reporting period, rising from 77% to 82%.

Projects in London continued to dominate gateway 2 activity, accounting for 65% of all in-progress new build applications and 58% of the total units under assessment.

Meanwhile, the BSR determined 29 gateway 3 applications in the 12 weeks to 1 August 2026. These were completed in a median time of 16 weeks, the quickest in eight weeks, with an overall approval rate of 72%.

Gateway 3 is the final mandatory stage of the building control process, requiring applicants to demonstrate that completed work complies with the Building Regulations and that the building is safe to occupy before it can be brought into use.

The regulator’s latest bulletin shows that no new build projects which have passed gateway 2 have yet completed gateway 3. Of the 319 gateway 3 applications received to date, 235 relate to internal refurbishments. Most of the remainder comprise transitional cases (47) and NHS internal refurbishments (23).

Dr David Crosthwaite, chief economist at BCIS, said: ‘Although the overall number of gateway 2 decisions was slightly lower than in the previous reporting period, the increase in approval rates suggests applicants are becoming more familiar with the regulator’s requirements and are submitting stronger applications.

‘The emergence of gateway 3 decisions is another important milestone for the building safety regime. While the current caseload is still dominated by refurbishment and transitional projects, these figures begin to provide an early indication of how the new regulatory framework is performing as schemes progress through the full approval process.’

Gateway 2 data by application type

The latest BSR bulletin groups gateway 2 applications into three categories: new higher-risk buildings (HRBs) and conversions, external remediation, and HRB internal works and NHS applications.

In the 12 weeks to 1 August, the BSR made 45 decisions on applications for new HRBs and conversions. Of these, 41 were approved and four were rejected. Approved new build applications took a median of 22 weeks to determine, while rejected applications were determined in a median of six weeks.

The regulator also made 110 decisions on external remediation applications during the period, taking a median time of 34 weeks for approvals.

A further 448 applications for HRB internal works and 29 NHS applications were received in the 12 weeks to 1 August. Approval rates for these categories stand at 77% and 84% respectively.

The release of the latest dataset also marks 12 months since the BSR’s Innovation Unit was established. Over that period, its approval rate has increased from 39% to 91%, while the median time taken to determine approved applications has fallen from 43 weeks to 22 weeks.

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^{(1) GOV.UK – Building Safety Regulator building control approval application data May to July 2026 – here}

^{(2) GOV.UK – Building control approval for higher-risk buildings – here}