Independent Building Safety Act guidance
The Building Safety Act,
decoded for people who build.
We read the legislation, the guidance and the live regulator data so you do not have to, then tell you what it means on site. Three gateways, a golden thread and one regulator, without the legal fog.
Where the regime stands
BSR building control data, verified 2026-07-14
358
Gateway 2 decisions
12 weeks to 30 May 2026
75%
approval rate
Innovation Unit at 90%
12-14
week batching median
vs a 12-week statutory target
16 / 9
Gateway 3 apps / certificates
the next bottleneck
Gateway 2 has clawed its way back from the 2025 crisis, when decisions averaged 43 weeks. The pressure is moving downstream to Gateway 3. Read the numbers.
The regulatory journey
Find your way in
The site follows the journey a building takes: from the Act itself, through the three hard gateways, to occupation.
The next queue
Gateway 2 is recovering. Gateway 3 is where the next queue forms.
Only 16 new-build Gateway 3 applications had been submitted by early September 2025, and 9 certificates issued. The 2025-26 approval wave is now completing on site. The projects that kept an accurate golden thread as they built will clear it fastest.
Why Gateway 3 applications stallThe Gateway Brief
Gateway 2 is recovering. Gateway 3 is where the next queue forms.
The Building Safety Regulator has broken the Gateway 2 backlog: 358 decisions at a 75% approval rate in the 12 weeks to 30 May 2026, down from a 43-week peak in October 2025. But the approved schemes are now completing on site, and Gateway 3 volume is rising from a base of just 16 applications.
Read the analysisThe Gateway Brief
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