The Building Safety Act 2022, explained by people who build

What does the Building Safety Act 2022 actually do?

The Act rewires how buildings, above all high-rise residential buildings, are regulated in England. It received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, and the heart of the regime switched on on 1 October 2023, when the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) became the building control authority for every higher-risk building in England and Gateways 2 and 3 came into force under the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023.

In practice the Act does four things. It defines a class of higher-risk buildings. It puts three regulatory stop points, the gateways, across their life. It makes named dutyholders legally accountable for compliance. And it requires a golden thread of building information that survives from first design decision into occupation.

Why does the Act exist?

On 14 June 2017, fire spread through the external cladding of Grenfell Tower in West London. 72 people died. The government appointed Dame Judith Hackitt to review building regulations and fire safety. Her interim report was published in December 2017 and her final report, Building a Safer Future, followed in May 2018. It described a "race to the bottom" in the industry's approach to safety, and recommended gateways, dutyholders, a golden thread of information and a single regulator for higher-risk buildings. The Act is the legislative delivery of those recommendations. The Grenfell Inquiry's Phase 2 report, published on 4 September 2024, went further and recommended a single construction regulator; the BSR's move to standalone status in January 2026 is a step along that path.

How does the three-gateway system work?

Three checkpoints, two of them hard stops.

Gateway	When	What happens
Gateway 1	At planning (live since August 2021)	A fire statement is submitted with the planning application for relevant buildings; the regulator is statutory consultee on fire safety
Gateway 2	Before construction (hard stop)	Building control approval from the BSR; construction cannot lawfully start without it; statutory determination is 12 weeks for new builds and 8 weeks for work to existing higher-risk buildings
Gateway 3	Before occupation (hard stop)	Completion certificate from the BSR; occupying before the certificate is issued and the building is registered is a criminal offence; statutory determination is 8 weeks

Between Gateways 2 and 3, every change goes through formal change control: major changes need BSR approval before the affected work proceeds, and notifiable changes proceed unless the BSR objects within 14 days. Gateway breaches carry unlimited fines and/or up to 2 years imprisonment. The detail lives in the Gateway 1, Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 hubs.

Who carries the duties?

During design and construction: the client, the principal designer and the principal contractor, under the dutyholder and competence regime in Part 2A of the Building Regulations, in force since 1 October 2023. Dutyholders must be competent for the work they take on, and at Gateway 3 the principal designer and principal contractor sign compliance declarations against what was actually built, not what was drawn. Once the building is occupied, responsibility passes to the Accountable Person, with a Principal Accountable Person responsible for registering the building with the BSR.

What is the golden thread?

The golden thread is the digital, accurate, accessible record of the building's design, construction and management information: started at Gateway 2, maintained through the build, and handed to the Accountable Person at completion. It is the part of the regime most likely to hurt you at handover if you treat it as a filing job for later. We cover it properly in the golden thread guide.

Which buildings are caught?

Buildings at least 18 metres tall or with at least 7 storeys, containing at least 2 residential units, plus care homes and hospitals that meet the height test at the design and construction stage. Measurement rules, exclusions and the edge cases practitioners actually hit are covered in what counts as a higher-risk building.

Where does the regime stand in July 2026?

Better than it did. Between October 2023 and mid 2025, Gateway 2 became a bottleneck: by October 2025 the BSR's chair confirmed average approval times of 43 weeks nationally and 48 weeks in London against the 12-week statutory target. From June 2025 the regulator was pulled out of HSE, re-staffed and reorganised, and on 27 January 2026 it became a standalone public body sponsored by MHCLG. By spring 2026 the legacy new-build backlog had been cut to low single figures.

According to BSR data covering the 12 weeks to 30 May 2026, the regulator issued 358 Gateway 2 decisions with a 75% approval rate, and batched applications ran at a median of 12-14 weeks.

Source: BSR building control data, gov.uk. Verified 14 July 2026.

Around 38,775 residential units remain in live cases, and two dates now dominate programmes: 30 September 2026, when the second staircase mandate lands for new residential buildings over 18m, and 1 October 2026, when the Building Safety Levy comes into force and the BSR will withhold Gateway 3 completion certificates where levy payment is overdue. The BSR's stated target is non-complex Gateway 2 decisions in 18 weeks or less by March 2027. Gateway 3 is the next pressure point as the 2025-26 approval wave completes on site.