Transparency data

Building Safety Regulator building control approval application data January to March 2026

Updated 29 April 2026

Applies to England

All data is correct as of 29 March 2026 and provided by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).

Gateway 2: Priority headline numbers for new build

Status	Legacy cases	Innovation Unit	Legacy transitional cases	Total
New cases received	0	71	0	71
Decisions made	22	43	3	68
Live cases as of 5 Jan	91	27	34	152
Live cases as of 30 Mar	2	117	27	146

​ Total number of units in new cases received 12,975 ​

​

 ​ Total number of units in decisions made 16,721 ​

​

 ​ Total number of units in live cases as of 30 March 28,761 ​

Commentary

• In the 12-week rolling period to 30 March, 31 new build Innovation Unit (IU) applications have been determined with 72 new applications received. The overall all-time number of approvals has reached 24, up from 11 at the end of February.
• Of the 31 decisions made, 19 were approvals and 12 were rejections. This means that the 12-week rolling approval rate now stands at 61%, significantly up from last month, with a median approval time of 22 weeks.
• Legacy cases have reduced to 2 with 13 long-term cases (down from 18) with significant technical challenges being managed as complex cases category. This is where account managers work closely with applicants to try to achieve a successful outcome and deliver safe homes.
• 18 live new-build cases are deemed complex cases, as we continue to work closely with applicants to reach an approval despite technical challenges.
• Over the past 12 weeks new applications representing 12,975 residential units have been received. This has been outstripped by decisions, with applications representing 16,721 units being determined, of which 10,165 (61%) were approvals. There are currently 28,761 units in live cases.

Innovation Unit (national)

Innovation Unit: new in versus closed decisions (national)​

Week commencing	New in	Closed decisions	Total live cases
5 Jan	5	4	109
12 Jan	4	0	113
19 Jan	7	1	119
26 Jan	7	8	118
2 Feb	6	2	122
9 Feb	3	0	125
16 Feb	9	2	132
23 Feb	2	9	125
2 Mar	11	6	130
9 Mar	7	4	133
16 Mar	9	1	141
23 Mar	2	8	135

Innovation Unit: performance totals (national)​

Description	Total
New in	72
Live	135
Units approved	5,477 ​
Units in progress	24,824 ​

Innovation Unit: performance percentages and weeks taken (national)​

In the period, there were:

• 31 decisions made
• 14 invalid or withdrawn applications
• 18 live complex cases with a median approval time of 36 weeks

Description	Percentage	Weeks taken (median) ​​
Rejections	39%	17
Approval	61%	22

Commentary

• Out of 72 applications received over the past 12 weeks, 11 applications were invalidated and 3 withdrawn.
• Of the 31 decisions made, 19 were approvals and 12 were rejections.
• This means that the 12-week rolling approval rate (less invalidations and withdrawals) now stands at 61%, significantly up from last month, with a median approval time of 22 weeks.
• All time IU approvals now stand at 24, more than double the approvals reported at the end of February.
• Complex cases are now tracked separately and, whilst the final decision on a complex case is included in the rejection or approval totals, their median approval time is tracked separately and is now at 36 weeks.
• We continue to work closely with industry on consistency as we seek to reduce the number of complex cases in the system.
• The head of work in the IU now stands at 135 which is a small rise over the month.
• Live legacy cases have reduced to 2, with 13 long-term complex cases still being managed. These are not reflected in the IU data and are now not being reported on as a separate cohort.

Remediation (national)

Remediation: new in versus closed decisions (national)

Week commencing	New in	Closed decisions	Total live cases
5 Jan	6	4	311
12 Jan	8	6	313
19 Jan	6	8	311
26 Jan	9	14	306
2 Feb	8	9	305
9 Feb	7	10	302
16 Feb	14	10	306
23 Feb	6	6	306
2 Mar	14	8	312
9 Mar	12	10	314
16 Mar	3	11	306
23 Mar	4	11	299

Remediation: performance (national)

Description	Total
New in	97
Live	299
Units approved	6,555
Units in progress	25,921

Remediation: performance percentages and weeks taken (national)

In the period, there were:

• 92 decisions made
• 15 invalid or withdrawn applications

Description	Percentage	Weeks taken (median)
Rejections	39%	27
Approval	61%	36

Commentary

• The 12-week approval rate has risen to 61% with median approval time rising from 31 to 36 weeks as we successfully close out older applications which have been in the system for some time.
• Open remediation cases have declined slightly over the last 12 weeks.
• We announced the BSR Remediation Improvement Plan in the past month and have already made progress with fewer than 20 legacy 2024 applications now remaining and approval rates already approaching the 65% or greater target for 2026 due to operational improvements and intensive work to improve applications.
• We also continue to work closely with the sector to help applicants improve the quality of applications and data shows that applications submitted in Q4 2025 are progressing through the system much more rapidly than earlier applications.

All categories (national)

All categories new in versus closed decisions (national)

Week commencing	New in	Closed decisions	Total live cases
5 Jan	59	44	1,183
12 Jan	60	42	1,201
19 Jan	47	48	1,200
26 Jan	74	57	1,217
2 Feb	62	48	1,231
9 Feb	59	36	1,254
16 Feb	63	58	1,259
23 Feb	53	45	1,267
2 Mar	81	47	1,301
9 Mar	94	68	1,327
16 Mar	60	59	1,328
23 Mar	57	58	1,327

All categories: performance (national)

Description	Total
New in	769
Live	1,327

All categories: performance percentages and weeks taken (national)

In the period, there were:

• 284 decisions made
• 326 invalid or withdrawn applications
• 32 live complex cases with a median approval time of 29 weeks

Description	Percentage	Weeks taken (median)
Rejections	33%	25
Approval	67%	34

Commentary

• The number of live applications of all categories at gateway 2 has risen by around 60 (4%) over the last month.
• New applications of all types exceeded the number of decisions made over the past 12 weeks. With a total of 610 closed applications against 769 new applications.
• Category A and B determinations over the past 3 months account for circa 70% of gateway 2 volume of decisions. These applications include all internal refurbishment works as well as NHS applications.

Gateway 2: Regional distribution​

Data as of the 29 March 2026.​

Regional gateway 2 applications (London)​

Region	Innovation Unit	Legacy cases	Remediation	Total
London	84	8	164	256
Rest of country	51	7	135	193

Regional gateway 2 applications (rest of England)​

Region	Innovation Unit	Legacy cases	Remediation	Total
East	0	0	15	15
East Midlands	0	1	12	13
North-east	1	0	9	10
North-west	30	1	38	69
South-east	7	1	23	31
South-west	4	4	13	21
West Midlands	3	0	11	14
Yorkshire and The Humber	6	0	14	20

Innovation Unit (London)

Innovation Unit: new in versus closed decisions (London)

Week commencing	New in	Closed decisions	Total live cases
5 Jan	4	3	56
12 Jan	3	0	59
19 Jan	5	0	64
26 Jan	5	3	66
2 Feb	4	0	70
9 Feb	0	0	70
16 Feb	4	1	73
23 Feb	2	1	74
2 Mar	7	3	78
9 Mar	3	2	79
16 Mar	7	0	86
23 Mar	1	3	84

Innovation Unit: performance (London)

Description	Total
New in	45
Live	84
Units approved	2,513
Units in progress	15,100

Innovation Unit: performance percentages and weeks taken (London)

In the period, there were:

• 10 decisions made
• 6 invalid or withdrawn applications
• 9 live complex cases

Description	Percentage	Weeks taken (median)
Rejections	10%	5
Approval	90%	22

Commentary

• Around 65% of live IU applications are in London.
• This also represents around 54% of the overall residential units handled by the IU.
• 19 of the 49 decisions that the IU has made in the last 12 weeks are in London.
• London approval rates are significantly higher than nationally at 90% although this high figure specifically reflects significant work to unpick and resolve outstanding complex cases – which is also reflected in longer approval times, rather than representing a trend.

Remediation (London)

Remediation: new in versus closed decisions (London)

Week commencing	New in	Closed decisions	Total live cases
5 Jan	5	2	175
12 Jan	3	5	173
19 Jan	2	5	170
26 Jan	1	5	166
2 Feb	4	4	166
9 Feb	3	4	165
16 Feb	10	5	170
23 Feb	5	3	172
2 Mar	11	7	176
9 Mar	4	4	176
16 Mar	3	7	172
23 Mar	0	8	164

Remediation: performance (London)

Description	Total
New in	51
Live	164
Units approved	2,698
Units in progress	12,558

Remediation: performance percentages and weeks taken (London)

In the period, there were:

• 49 decisions made
• 10 invalid or withdrawn applications

Description	Percentage	Weeks taken (median)
Rejections	53%	27
Approval	47%	41

Commentary

• Open remediation cases in London have decreased slightly over the period from 172 to 164.
• We announced the BSR Remediation Improvement Plan in the past month. We have already made progress with fewer than 20 legacy 2024 applications now remaining and approval rates already approaching the 65% or greater target for 2026.
• London approval rates of 47% are slightly lower than nationally.

All categories (London)

All categories: new in versus closed decisions (London)

Week commencing	New in	Closed decisions	Total live cases
5 Jan	38	27	758
12 Jan	34	28	764
19 Jan	30	32	762
26 Jan	47	33	776
2 Feb	36	28	784
9 Feb	33	17	800
16 Feb	39	34	805
23 Feb	35	21	819
2 Mar	53	32	840
9 Mar	54	43	851
16 Mar	32	41	842
23 Mar	39	36	845

All categories: performance (London)

Description	Total
New in	470
Live	845

All categories: performance percentages and weeks taken (London)

In the period, there were:

• 177 decisions made
• 195 invalid or withdrawn applications
• 16 live complex cases

Description	Percentage	Weeks taken (median)
Rejections	36%	27
Approval	64%	35

Commentary

• The number of live London applications of all categories at gateway 2 shows an increase, from 747 to 845 over the past 12 weeks.
• A total of 372 applications have been closed, set against 470 new applications received.
• 62% of all decisions across all gateway 2 categories in the past 12 weeks related to London cases.
• Category A and B determinations in London over the past 3 months account for circa 75% of gateway 2 volume of decisions. These applications include all internal refurbishment works as well as NHS applications.

Building control: Batching pilot

Batch volumes: cases allocated by batch number

Batch number	New build	Refurbishment	Remediation	Total
1	12	30	10	52
2	0	32	14	46
3	8	20	8	36
4	23	46	18	87
5	5	34	17	56
6	4	46	17	67
7	32	86	42	160
8	15	56	18	89
9	9	12	9	30
10	3	17	19	49
11	0	24	15	39
12	11	19	3	33
13	11	22	26	59
14	6	19	24	49
15	12	29	18	59
16	23	34	19	76
17	0	32	8	40
18	10	3	4	17
19	13	21	26	60
20	4	17	16	37
21	6	15	5	26
22	12	18	23	53
23	0	0	0	0
24	5	8	7	20
25	0	0	0	0

Commentary

• The data shown in this and the following sections is a subset of the overall data shown earlier – for example, batching is part of the overall process, not additional.

• A pilot batching process was launched during September 2025, acknowledging that the original multidisciplinary team (MDT) model was not effective for managing the volume of cases across all categories of application.

• This new pilot process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised engineering services suppliers for accelerated assessment, with BSR maintaining regulatory oversight. The primary goal of batching is to accelerate backlog resolution in new build and remediation applications.

• The first of these mixed-category bundles (26 cases) was sent to suppliers on 30 September 2025. Weekly dispatch of subsequent bundles have been, and continue to be, based on supplier capacity.

• Initial processing times for applications allocated to batching is significantly quicker than under the previous model.

• The model follows a process where batches are issued to suppliers, they then have a limited time to accept or reject the cases in the allocation based on their capacity and any conflicts of interest. Once accepted, suppliers then have a defined period to return their assessments for consideration by BSR’s regulatory leads.

Batching pilot performance: new builds

Issued	Not yet accepted	Accepted	Returned	Decision made
242	83	159	83	39

​ Median weeks from issued to return 4 ​

​

​ Median weeks from issued to decision 9 ​

​

Batched new build decisions

Decision made	Percentage
Approval	23%
Approval with requirements	31% ​
Rejection	38%
Withdrawn	8%

Commentary

• Batching in new builds is being used to support only part of the overall building control application with most of the applications being considered by our in-house teams.

• The batching approach is being used in some cases to access specialist resource to evaluate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling in support of fire strategies submitted as part of an application.

• Approvals (or approval with requirements) for batching assessments relating to new build decisions sit at 54%.

Batching pilot performance: external remediation

Issued	Not yet accepted	Accepted	Returned	Decision made
372	197	175	139	30

​ Median weeks from issued to return 4 ​

​

​ Median weeks from issued to decision 10 ​

​

Batched remediation decisions

Decision made	Percentage
Approval	23%
Approval with requirements	4%​
Rejection	70%
Withdrawn	3%

Commentary

• External remediation often requires a ‘full’ MDT, made up of the 3 core specialisms: registered building inspector (RBI), fire and structural engineers.

• Batching allows us to allocate remediation applications to one or more suppliers who have these capabilities available (while BSR maintains regulatory oversight) and is distributed across suppliers according to capacity.

• 27% approvals (including with requirements) reflects the complexities with remediation applications.

Batching pilot performance: refurbishments

Issued	Not yet accepted	Accepted	Returned	Decision made
681	282	399	317	49

​ Median weeks from issued to return 4 ​

​

​ Median weeks from issued to decision 10 ​

​

Batched refurbishment decisions

Decision made	Percentage
Approval	43% ​
Approval with requirements	0%​
Rejection	49%
Withdrawn	8%

Commentary

• As with external remediation, category A refurbishments often require a ‘full’ MDT, made up of the 3 core specialisms: RBI, fire and structural engineers.

• Batching allows us to allocate these refurbishment applications to one or more suppliers who have these capabilities available and is distributed across suppliers according to capacity.

Innovation Unit resources​

Role	Actual as of 26 Mar	Forecast April (mid-month)	Forecast May (mid-month)	Forecast June (mid-month)
Registered building inspectors	21	24	30	35
Structural engineers	17	20	22	24
Fire engineers	7.2	8	10	14

All numbers are full-time equivalent – for example, some people are available to BSR fewer than 5 days per week, so the totals shown are aggregated.

Commentary

• BSR draws building inspector, fire engineer and structural engineer resources from partner organisations across the public and private sector.

• These resources were brought in-house within BSR for the first time as part of the IU and allow BSR to have better control over resource allocation and tasking.

• The provision of sufficient resource of this type is therefore critical to enabling the IU’s work.

• Class 3 registered building inspectors (RBIs) are the most scarce.

• We are working to grow capacity to meet demand and to support other application categories such as remediation, including supporting with additional HR resource to support this.