New leadership is aiming to fix delays blamed for slowing high-rise housing approvals, but tighter resources and the incoming Building Safety Levy could revive bottlenecks.
The question hanging over the Building Safety Regulator’s overhaul is simple: can a system built to prevent disaster move fast enough to keep housing flowing?
In recent months. England’s Building Safety Regulator—created under the Building Safety Act 2022 after the Grenfell Tower tragedy—has been under intense pressure to prove it can deliver on both halves of its mission: rigorous safety scrutiny and timely decisions.. The agency’s mandate is unusually broad for a regulator.. It oversees remediation for existing buildings and. at the same time. approves “higher-risk” new developments at multiple stages—meaning housing projects can be delayed not only after design. but also before construction begins.
That structure is why the Building Safety Regulator’s “Gateway 2” review became the poster child for frustration.. Gateway 2, the point at which the regulator reviews design before construction can start, was meant to take 12 weeks.. Instead, delays stretched dramatically—by summer 2025, average waiting times reportedly rose to just over 51 weeks.. Developers and housing groups complained of a lack of transparency around what constitutes a “good” application. along with communication they described as inconsistent.. In December 2025, a House of Lords committee effectively branded the delays unacceptable, warning that they were harming new housing delivery.
Misryoum’s focus on United States politics may seem like a detour here, but the underlying lesson travels.. When safety regulation becomes unpredictable. it doesn’t just slow construction—it reshapes markets. financing timelines. and public trust in whether oversight is protective or punitive.. That’s why this story has clear implications beyond any single regulator: the balancing act between prevention and pace is a recurring theme in governance.
Behind the scenes, the regulator has begun changing its operating model.. In June 2025. former London fire commissioner Andy Roe was appointed chair. alongside Charlie Pugsley as chief executive and John Palmer as operations director.. Sector leaders interviewed by Misryoum describe these leadership changes as a shift away from a “hands-off” approach toward more direct engagement with industry.. Housing groups say they’re now more likely to talk through problems early rather than receiving decisions that feel opaque or final.
The numbers being cited alongside those claims suggest some traction.. Median waiting times for approvals at Gateway 2 are still longer than the 12-week target. but they have dropped from the worst periods. with recent reporting indicating that approval took about 22 weeks on average and rejections about 17 weeks.. More importantly for developers. a backlog of legacy cases has largely been cleared. and the approval rate for validated applications rose notably in the 12 weeks leading up to late March.
Yet the regulator’s makeover faces three stress tests that could determine whether this improvement is durable.. First is culture: officials and sector figures say that even when process changes land, mindsets don’t switch overnight.. One concern repeated in commentary is that the regulator may still need time to fully evolve from a system that rejects incomplete or unclear filings into one that actively guides applicants toward acceptable submissions.
Second is the risk of a new pinch point.. Attention has been heavily concentrated on Gateway 2, but the approval path doesn’t end there.. Gateway 3—when buildings are assessed after construction but before occupation—could become the next bottleneck if resources. internal readiness. or guidance clarity lag behind.. Housing analysts and industry representatives worry that if Gateway 3 decisions don’t keep pace. the downstream impact will show up as cashflow pressure: developers can’t move into revenue-generating operations without final sign-off.
Third is resourcing and systems—the quieter issues that often decide whether reform sticks.. The government reportedly approved 115 additional staff positions for the regulator by the end of 2025. but only a portion had been onboarded. raising doubts about how quickly the workflow can scale.. On top of headcount, there are also operational constraints, including earlier criticism about document-management and information technology systems.. Industry leaders argue that even when communication improves, weak back-office infrastructure can still create delays and confusion.
Then comes the Building Safety Levy, scheduled to be introduced in October after a previous delay.. The levy is designed to fund cladding remediation and other safety repairs. but Misryoum’s readers should focus less on the policy goal and more on the implementation timing.. As the deadline nears, developers may rush to secure earlier approvals to qualify under the new system.. That could trigger a short-term workload spike for the regulator—right when its leadership team is trying to steady throughput and reduce rejections caused by invalid applications.
There is also an ongoing debate about the scope of what counts as “higher-risk.” The current threshold—buildings taller than 18 meters (or seven storeys)—draws criticism for being arbitrary. especially given the regulator’s complex role in fire and safety assurance.. Some policy voices argue the threshold is too low. expanding the regulator’s workload beyond what they see as a risk-based justification. and thereby increasing costs for “mid-rise” housing—precisely the segment policymakers often cite as central to affordability strategies.
The regulator’s leadership changes have bought it a window of credibility: progress in communication. falling delays in Gateway 2. and rising approval rates for validated submissions all suggest reform is possible.. But credibility will be tested in the months ahead as Gateway 3 demand increases. staffing gaps narrow or widen. and the levy reshapes developer behavior.. If the regulator can keep improving without simply shifting delays downstream, it may finally escape the “bottleneck” reputation.. If not. today’s gains could be swallowed by the next wave of pressure—leaving housing delivery once again hostage to timelines that feel harder to plan around than the safety standards themselves.
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