Regulator capacity and the Building Safety challenge in 2025-2026

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) sits at the centre of the long‑anticipated transformation of building safety legislation. Tasked with approving high‑risk building projects, regulating the building control profession and raising standards across the industry, it has somewhat of a formidable job and recent months have exposed a simple truth, namely that the regulator’s capacity directly determines the pace and success of reform.

Why capacity matters now

High‑risk building projects can’t proceed without building control approval from the BSR.

As of 1 October 2025 the regulator was working through 152 live new‑build applications, covering around 33,670 homes, alongside 253 remediation projects affecting a further 22,304 units (see source at buildingsafety.campaign.gov.uk).

This workload is growing rapidly as Gateway 2 becomes the mandatory “hard stop” for higher‑risk buildings. The regulator has responded by establishing an Innovation Unit and piloting a new batching system that bundles applications for centralised assessment.

In mid‑2025 the BSR reported its highest monthly decision totals so far, approaching 200. However, current data show average determination times often extending beyond 12 weeks, reflecting the scale of submissions under Gateway 2. These developments show promise, yet they also underline the enormous resource pressures facing the BSR.

Alongside new‑build approvals, the regulator is also responsible for regulating the building control profession itself. From April 2024 it became a criminal offence to work as a building inspector without being registered with the BSR. Practitioners must pass an independent competency assessment and sign up to the BSR’s code of conduct. Private building control businesses, such as enevobuildingcontrol.co.uk, are now required to register as Registered Building Control Approvers (RBCAs) under the Building Safety Regulator. This replaces the former ‘Approved Inspector’ designation retired in 2024.

This move goes hand‑in‑hand with recruitment. Oral evidence to the House of Lords in September 2025 confirmed that the BSR has grown from a blank sheet to nearly 400 staff and has already registered 4,200 building inspectors and about 80 private providers. Even so, the BSR’s operations team still needs to recruit another hundred people, and there are concerns about this “poaching” skills from an already stretched construction sector. The regulator acknowledges the national skills shortages and is working with government to avoid draining resources from local building control bodies.

Oversight, enforcement and the balance of speed and scrutiny

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommended a single construction regulator to bring together fragmented oversight and ensure consistent enforcement. In its February 2025 response, the government accepted this principle and signalled that a Regulatory Reform Prospectus will be published around autumn 2025. The new regulator is intended to oversee construction products, professional competence and building control, with unified enforcement teams able to act swiftly against bad actors. Although government has floated the concept of a future consolidated regulator, the BSR already carries statutory enforcement authority for higherrisk buildings and registered professionals. No separate or merged regulator has yet been established.

National Fire Chiefs have warned that “enforcement alone cannot fix a broken system”. In their 2025 Remediation Position Statement they highlight that fire and rescue services are being asked to enforce a regime while facing their own workforce shortages. The NFCC has warned that only a small group of senior fire engineering specialists is available within fire and rescue services, highlighting the need for a national skills plan to strengthen public‑sector engineering capacity.

These views also reinforce that these capacity challenges are widespread. Without enough skilled professionals across building control, design, fire engineering and construction, the regulator’s workload will undoubtedly continue to put strain on the system.

What this means for dutyholders

Clients, principal designers and principal contractors are all feeling the effects of regulator capacity. We can see that many long determination times are linked to poor‑quality applications, missing information and unclear safety strategies. The BSR has published detailed guidance on what must be included in Gateway 2 submissions, and its Innovation Unit is demonstrating that well‑prepared cases can be processed within 12 weeks.

To avoid delays:

• Get your people registered. All building control professionals and businesses must be on the BSR register. Check that your teams, consultants and inspectors are appropriately registered and have passed the competency assessment.
• Invest in competence. National skills shortages mean the BSR is competing for the same engineers and inspectors as the rest of the sector. Provide training, support apprenticeships and keep evidence of competence. Under the new regime the regulator will ask for proof of individual and organisational capability.
• Plan early and submit complete information. Start Gateway planning at RIBA Stage 2 or earlier. Use the BSR’s guidance to ensure fire and structural strategies, appointment decisions and digital records are included. The new batching process rewards well‑structured submissions with quicker determinations.
• Think beyond high‑risk buildings. Although the BSR’s legal remit is limited to higher‑risk buildings, it also regulates building control providers and monitors standards across all buildings. Good practice on smaller projects reduces the burden on the system and prepares organisations for future regulatory changes, such as the planned single regulator.

enevo’s perspective and support

At enevo Building Safety we are seeing first‑hand the tension between speed and scrutiny.

The regulator’s new processes are a positive step, yet success of the system ultimately depends on how well industry responds. The goal is not just to get through Gateway 2, it is to produce buildings that are safe for residents and that meet scrutiny decades from now. All of which requires investing in people, data, and ensuring collaboration.

Our registered, experienced and competent advisers work with clients to anticipate regulatory expectations, assemble capable teams and produce robust submissions. We help you design internal governance structures, organise your digital “golden thread” of information, and engage with the BSR BEFORE your project hits the approval queue. Where capacity issues look likely to affect your programme, we can help guide you on re‑sequencing activities and identifying critical pathways.

If you are navigating Gateway approvals, building control registration, or want no nonsense support and confidence that your organisation is ready for the next phase of reform, get in touch with enevo’s Building Safety team. Our team has open, professional dialogue with the Building Safety Regulator and also monitors regulatory developments closely through official BSR communications, industry briefings and professional networks, ensuring clients receive up‑to‑date and compliant guidance.

By working together, we can make sure that capacity constraints do not become an excuse for compromised safety.