Gateway 2: Will 2026 bring the clarity the sector needs?
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While the Gateways regime has strengthened safety standards, its rollout has created significant uncertainty, delays and additional costs. The announced changes must start to alter the landscape, says Sarah Rock.
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced three Gateways into the building control approval process for building or carrying out certain works to high-rise residential buildings (HRBs) in England, the first at planning stage, the second at building control approval stage and the third at completion. Gateways 2 and 3 act as hold points, meaning they must be passed successfully before a spade can be put in the ground or a completed building may be occupied. The Gateways, which have been managed by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) since October 2023, have become notorious in the construction industry for causing delay and costs to projects – but why?
Making a Gateway 2 submission requires a construction-ready design package typically found at RIBA Stage 4 displaying a clear understanding of how the building will be constructed and how it will meet building regulations and fire safety standards. Also required are full building plans, specifications and schedules with descriptions of materials, construction methods and timeline for the project alongside more detail including competency declarations, change control plans and the fire and emergency file. Requiring such a mature design before allowing work on site has front-loaded the design process and requires having a full team on board early.
Once received, the BSR has a statutory period of 12 weeks (new HRBs) and 8 weeks (works to existing HRBs) to process the Gateway 2 application. However, as has been widely discussed in the industry press these timeframes have not been met and as was reported by the BSR chair in October last year the average time that firms were waiting for Gateway 2 approval across the UK stood at 43 weeks, 48 weeks in London. Such delays have huge potential knock-on effects for the industry – supply chains are in limbo, costs of materials are fluctuating and the prices of high-rise schemes are spiralling. Funders are understandably less willing to lend against projects involving the Gateways. In addition, a lot of the projects stuck in the Gateway 2 log jam are remedial projects to fix dangerous defects discovered post-Grenfell.
The causes for the delays are numerous and vary depending on which side of the fence you are sitting. The BSR has complained that missing or inadequate information is a major issue. It is easy to see that such a new and complex procedure might have caused some teething problems to developers attempting to obtain a successful application for the first time. From the developer’s point of view, a lack of transparency from, and communication with, the BSR teams has resulted in much frustration. In fact, the teams themselves have potentially been a cause of the issue. External multi-disciplinary teams assembled upon receipt of an application has led to inconsistencies between applications and longer review periods.
In recognition of the issues and the knock-oneffect to the industry (as well as to the Government’s housing pledge of 1.5 million new homes by 2029) major reforms were introduced at the BSR last year. The BSR is being transferred out of the Health and Safety Executive and is to become an arm’s-length body under the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. A new non-executive chair and new chief executive were appointed (both with significant previous fire commissioning experience). Over 100 new staff are being hired with the hope that they will go towards forming internal MDTs and greater transparency and collaboration with the applicant’s design team is also hoped for.
Further assistance has been provided by the Construction Leadership Council who in July last year published the Guidance on Building Control Approval Applications for a new Higher-Risk Building (Gateway 2). This guidance provides the baseline principles to guide developers submitting applications and includes practical recommendations on the approach and submission of relevant information. In addition, in December last year the Government provided further guidance for Preparing Information for a Building Control Approval Application.
It is hoped that the improvements underway at the BSR and the improved level of guidance available to developers will assist from both angles in reducing the time taken to process Gateway 2 applications to within the statutory timeframes. The additional 100+ members of staff are a very welcome addition but it should be understood that it is likely to take some time for these new starters to get up to speed on what is of itself a new and complicated process. The additional guidance for developers is hopefully going to prove helpful but better communications with the MDT team members themselves seems to be a bigger breakthrough. When speaking with developer clients the lack of transparency and inability to speak with anyone within the BSR has led to frustration and confusion in addition to costs and delays.
The rationale for the Gateways process is simple to understand and is a welcome additional safety standard for HRBs following the terrible tragedy at Grenfell. The application, however, has to date been fraught with confusion, frustration and costs. The changes announced last year must start to alter the landscape, reduce the delays and provide for a more cohesive system or developers will stop building up and the housing crisis will continue.
The full article was first published on page 22 by Planning in London in January 2026.
