Gateway 2 is the BSR’s planning approvals checkpoint to ensure all safety-critical elements are fully designed, resolved and approved before physical work begins on higher-risk buildings. A new ‘fast-track’ innovation unit, established in August, is now responsible for a majority of live new build cases.
More than 700 decisions were made in the final quarter of 2025, compared with around 200 in the first three months of the year. It is the most determinations in a single quarter since the BSR commenced operations.
Figures for the 12 weeks to 22 December show that the rate of new build applications continues to rise and that, despite the innovation unit’s efforts, the overall number of projects on the unit’s roster is also increasing. However, the BSR said it expects the net figures to stabilise soon.
Legacy new build cases have fallen once again, dropping from 94 at the end of September to 52 as of 22 December. The average approval time for these applications was 37 weeks compared with 12 weeks for new applications received by the innovation unit.
The AJ has been informed of several ‘speedy’ approvals over the past couple of months, suggesting that the process is starting to free up after years of sluggish progress.
Maccreanor Lavington’s student housing scheme, the ROC Club in Southwark, was granted approval in late 2025 just 21 weeks after submission, with work starting on site in mid-December.
The developer on the project, CKC Properties, said: ‘Achieving a 21-week turnaround in an almost unknown environment to the industry is an absolute breath of fresh air.’
Gavin Finnan, director at Maccreanor Lavington, described the Gateway 2 process as ‘relatively speedy and smooth’.
A Corstorphine & Wright-designed project for more than 600 student housing units also got through the Gateway 2 milestone in December, taking 13 weeks, only one week shy of the BSR’s target decision time.
Project developer Meanwhile said: ‘Securing Gateway 2 approval for Kingsland Road in record time is a significant moment of confidence for investors and developers, particularly in the build-to-rent sector, that want to continue to deliver new housing in the UK.’
The BSR said in its latest report that the most recent batch of new build applications approved had been decided at the 12 to 13-week mark.
Regarding legacy applications, it said a ‘number of complex and/or contested cases are likely to remain in January’, though the approval rate of these older applications remains high at 83 per cent.
One legacy case that has been hauled out of Gateway 2 limbo is Child Graddon Lewis’s Luton town centre regeneration scheme, which will finally get under way this month after BSR delays pushed the project from its intended start date in August last year.
Another are the next phases (8.1 and 8.2) of Stitch Architects’ Acton Gardens housing regeneration project, which finally got over the Gateway 2 hurdle in December after around a year of waiting.
Reacting to the latest figures, Dominic Currans, director of the British Property Federation, said: ‘The latest statistics from the BSR are encouraging. The stock of homes waiting for Gateway 2 sign off has fallen, and the speed of decision-making, and thus average wait times, continues to fall.
‘Last year’s intensive pressure on government from us and the wider industry, and the consequential push of the new management team, seems to be paying off, hopefully making 2026 a year when regulator delays cease to be a problem.’
The BSR is in the process of transitioning out of the Health and Safety Executive and into a new agency within the Ministry of Housing in a move to create a single industry regulator. The British Property Federation said that it welcomed this change and was engaging with the consultation launched before Christmas.
In a report published last month the House of Lords urged the government to do more to address ‘unacceptable’ delays and ‘unclear’ guidance by the BSR. The findings of the Industry and Regulators Committee also argued that a serious skills shortage was leaving an ‘ageing workforce’ of building inspectors struggling to meet demand.