Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Building Safety Regulator is reviewing proposals for new schemes in a timely fashion.
We recognise that there are delays to the Gateways process and that processing times need to improve. MHCLG officials continue to work closely with the BSR to understand their resource requirements, technical capacity and how processes can be improved. This includes ministerial level involvement. We have provided funding to the BSR to recruit an extra 30 frontline staff to bolster its capacity. On 14 May, BSR also launched a campaign to directly recruit Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs), with further recruitment planned in June 2025. We expect the impact of these new recruits on processing times to scale up in the coming months. BSR continues to carry out extensive stakeholder engagement to support applicants to better understand and meet the new requirements. Since July 2024, BSR has held weekly meetings with the Construction Leadership Council and other industry bodies including the Home Builders Federation to address knowledge gaps and share lessons learned. BSR also issued new guidance in collaboration with the sector in March 2025 based on the findings of research with organisations submitting building control applications. BSR has taken several further measures including implementing early-stage validation checks to improve efficiency, reduce incomplete submissions, and free up resources for compliant applications. Whilst BSR and MHCLG are exploring all possible opportunities to strengthen the new Gateway process and guidance to industry, it is important to recognise that a significant volume of applications continue to be invalidated or rejected for not meeting the legislative requirements. These are buildings that, had they been constructed, might have placed residents at risk and/or living in housing that did not meet long-standing requirements.