Will the Gateway Two building safety delays lead to more disputes?
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As planning gridlock keeps schemes on hold and fingers are pointed in all directions, who will carry the can for delay costs? And will clients simply opt out of new-build Higher Risk Buildings altogether?
The delays to higher-risk building (HRB) projects being experienced by parties trying to navigate the gateways processes are well known across the industry and continue to make headlines. However, what happens once those projects finally get off the ground has been little considered. The current average delay to a HRB project is 18-22 weeks at gateway 2 alone. The additional programme time and cost has to go somewhere – and the likelihood is that it will ultimately end up in court.
The Building Safety Act requires that HRBs, buildings of 18m or seven storeys in height which contain at least two residential units, must pass through the gateways process – gateway 1 before planning permission is granted, gateway 2 before work can start on site and gateway 3 at completion but before the building can be occupied. Each gateway must be passed to the satisfaction of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) or the project comes to a hard stop.
The full article published by Building in July 2025 can be found here and sits behind a paywall.
