Law firm Irwin Mitchell submitted an FOI to the government and found that delays in the BSR’s Gateway 3 approval process had caused a backlog, resulting in a number of completed homes being ready for residents but left unoccupied.
The building safety regime for higher-risk buildings requires developers to pass three regulatory gateways overseen by the BSR. Gateway 2 occurs at the design stage of a development, before construction starts, while Gateway 3 is the final approval before a completed building can be occupied.
High-rise buildings that are at least 18 metres tall or at least seven stories are typically deemed high risk.
Gateway 3 approvals are supposed to be completed within eight weeks, but Irwin Mitchell’s FOI request showed that out of 158 applications submitted last year, 55 took more than three months to reach a decision.
Further, 44 schemes waited more than three months to be approved, and the longest wait was 550 days. Some 5,594 completed units have been left unoccupied due to these delays.
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Irwin Mitchell has previously brought attention to delays at the Gateway 2 stage, but said Gateway 3 was also causing a bottleneck.
At the end of last year, the Industry and Regulators Committee said the BSR needed to improve its processes as developers complained about the delays in approving projects and a lack of guidance around how to demonstrate the safety of a building.
Irwin Mitchell has called on the government, the BSR and the industry to work together to streamline approvals and make sure the building safety regime delivers on its remit while allowing the delivery of new homes.
Vijay Bange, national head of construction at Irwin Mitchell, said: “We fully support the need for a strong, independent regulator and recognise the importance of rigorous oversight. But our FOI findings show that the current Gateway 3 process is not delivering decisions within the statutory time frame.
“Thousands of completed homes are sitting empty for months on end. This is financially damaging for developers and deeply frustrating for residents waiting to move into safe, modern homes.
“The transition to a standalone regulator provides an opportunity for improvement, but the delays we are seeing now are unsustainable. Greater transparency, clearer communication and better resourcing are essential if Gateway 3 is to operate effectively.”
