The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has launched a wide-ranging plan aimed at accelerating external remediation works on higher-risk buildings (HRBs) and tackling longstanding delays in the approvals process.
The initiative is designed to increase the pace of critical safety upgrades across England and help the regulator clear a backlog of complex cases and improve decision times.
Central to the plan is the creation of a dedicated multidisciplinary team (MDT) focused on external remediation, which will mirror the BSR’s Innovation Unit, introduced in September 2025. Crucially, it will be supported by account managers to streamline communication with applicants.
BSR is also undertaking a recruitment drive to expand regulatory lead capacity, to reduce individual caseloads from around 25 projects to approximately 10.
In a move to prevent projects from stalling, BSR will make greater use of ‘approval with requirements’, allowing works to begin safely while outstanding technical issues are resolved.
Complex cases
Around 40% of current external remediation applications rely on government funding, and while more recent submissions have shown improvement, older and more complex cases continue to clog the system.
BSR said internal resource constraints, combined with a high volume of non-compliant applications, have contributed to delays.
The regulator is also exploring the use of building control professionals from different classes to support case officers and ease workloads.
Improving communication
The plan includes a shift towards more direct engagement with applicants, including early-stage meetings for complex schemes and increased dialogue to resolve technical issues more quickly.
A new prioritisation framework will also be introduced to give applicants greater visibility of where their projects sit in the assessment process; an area that has been a source of frustration across the industry.
In addition, a formal consistency process will be implemented to resolve disputes between project teams and the regulator more efficiently.
Raising submission quality
BSR highlighted that incomplete or poor-quality applications remain a major cause of delays, with common issues including insufficient fire performance evidence, missing structural calculations, inadequate thermal data and unclear design information.
To address this, the regulator has issued initial guidance on external remediation applications, with further resources and targeted support set to follow. Improvements to digital systems are also planned, including tools to allow applicants to track progress in real-time.
BSR is also working to enhance data sharing with funding bodies such as Homes England to better align remediation pipelines.
Reducing decision times
By December 2026, BSR aims to reduce average decision times for remediation applications to under 12 weeks and increase approval rates to more than 65%. The regulator also plans to bring its caseload down to between 80 and 100 live applications by the end of September 2026.
Lord Roe, BSR board chair, said the measures represent “a targeted and achievable package” to reset the system and clear legacy cases, adding that this would help ensure residents see safety improvements “without unnecessary delays”.
Charlie Pugsley, acting chief executive of BSR, said the regulator’s focus as it transitions into a standalone body is on “strengthening safety, rebuilding trust and collaborating with industry”.
He added: “Speed cannot come at the cost of safety. These measures will help ensure applications are both processed faster and submitted to a higher standard.”
