Building control approval application data

Highlights to 1 May 2026 (12 week rolling period)

• Across all categories, 323 gateway 2 decisions were made by BSR in the 12 weeks to 1 May, with a 71% approval rate. 62% of all decisions across all categories related to London cases.
• New applications representing 12,426 residential units were received and applications representing 17,046 housing units determined, of which 12,299 were approvals. There are currently 36,984 units in live cases.
• 73% of decisions (24 out of 33) made by the Innovation Unit (IU) in the last 12 weeks were approvals – with 14 of those approvals in London (representing a 100% approval rate in the capital) which also reflects the ongoing work on complex cases. All time IU approvals now stand at 33.
• Following the introduction of BSR’s External Remediation Improvement Plan in the past month, 20 legacy remediation applications from 2024 now remain. This is down from 42 at the beginning of 2026. A further 12 applications are on track to be determined in mid-May.
• Operational enhancements and intensive application refinement have seen Remediation approval rates already approaching the minimum 65% target for 2026.

Gateway approvals continue to rise

Across all categories, 323 gateway 2 decisions were made by BSR in the 12 weeks to 1 May, with a 71% approval rate. 62% of all decisions across all gateway 2 categories related to London cases.

New applications representing 17,626 residential units were received and applications representing 17,046 units were determined, of which 12,229 were approvals. There are currently 36,984 units in live cases.

New build approvals rise alongside Innovation Unit progress

New build applications continue to move through the Innovation Unit with a growing number of decisions and a rising approval rate.

The Innovation Unit (IU) made 33 decisions with 24 approvals (73%), of which 14 were in London, during the past 12 weeks. The 14 approvals in London represent a 100% approval rate in the capital over the last 12 weeks, which also reflects the ongoing work on complex cases.

All-time IU approvals now stand at 33, with a median approval time of 22 weeks.

We continue to work closely with industry on consistency as we seek to reduce the number of complex cases in the system. The IU is currently managing 143 live applications, representing 27,900 units.

Progress on external remediation

Following on from BSR’s External Remediation Improvement Plan’s introduction in the past month, 20 legacy 2024 applications now remain from 42 at the start of 2026. A further 12 applications are on track to be determined by mid-May. 

Operational improvements and intensive work to improve applications has seen approval rates rising to close to the minimum 65% target for 2026.

As part of the plan, external remediation-driven guidance was published in the past month alongside improved feedback and support provided to applicants. Further resources and support will be introduced this year.  

We also continue to work closely with the sector to help applicants improve the quality of applications. Data shows that applications submitted in 2026 are progressing through the system much more rapidly than earlier applications.

The average approval time was 25 weeks in a rolling 12-week period, which reflects the older 2024/2025 applications that we are now concluding. 

Capital accounts for 62% of recent decisions

London decisions continue to be the majority of all closed cases. Over the past 12 weeks, 62% of decisions across all gateway 2 categories were for projects located in the capital. 

During this period, 383 applications were closed in the capital, with 437 new applications received.  

Currently, 64% of all live Innovation Unit applications are based in London. This represents 57% of the overall residential units the unit is handling. The total number of live London applications across all categories is 849. 

Batching providing assessments in 4 weeks

Across all 3 major categories – new build, remediation and refurbishment – the median time from a case being issued to a supplier to a full assessment being returned is just 4 weeks under BSR’s batching process.

• 254 new build cases have been issued through batching, with 43 decisions (of 87 returned to date) reached at a median time of 9 weeks from issue to supplier to decision. This includes the time required for BSR to consider the assessment and make a decision.
• 408 remediation cases have been issued, with 33 decisions (of 140 returned) at a median time of 10 weeks.
• For refurbishment, 758 cases have been issued to the batching process so far. 82 decisions (of 321 returned) have also been reached at a median time of 11 weeks.

The data shows batching is proving effective in speeding up early assessment and decision. As rejections are often early decisions, we are therefore seeing a relatively high proportion of rejections from the batching process.

This is expected to drop and approach the steady-state shown in the rolling 12-week numbers as more batching applications flow through to reach approval.

The batching process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised external suppliers for accelerated assessment, with BSR maintaining full regulatory oversight.

Long-term and transitional cases

We have reduced the number of legacy, long-term cases to 8. These have significant technical challenges and have been managed as ‘complex cases’ since February.  

This is where account managers work closely with applicants to try to achieve a successful outcome. These are no longer reflected in the IU data as they are being reported on separately. 

Transitional cases have risen to 43 after BSR was required to accept HRB projects previously being managed by Assent Building Control, which ceased trading in November 2025.

Other useful information