Nearly 5,600 completed homes have sat empty for three months or more due to delays at the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR’s) gateway 3 approval stage, Property Week can reveal.
New data obtained by law firm Irwin Mitchell via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Health and Safety Executive shows the total number of applications currently at gateway 3, the final approval stage for new residential applications that is required before buildings can be occupied. The BSR aims to make decisions within eight weeks, but the findings highlight growing pressure at the final approval stage.
The data, accurate as of 21 January, shows that since Q2 2024, 201 applications had been submitted to gateway 3, of which 158 were submitted in 2025 as applications started to progress through the backlog at gateway 2.
Of the approved applications, 55 took more than three months to receive a decision.
In total, 44 applications, representing a combined 5,594 completed homes, which were submitted over three months ago, are still awaiting a decision from the regulator, despite being “ready for residents” to occupy. The FOI request also revealed that the longest case has been waiting 550 days for determination.
At the end of last month, the BSR officially became a standalone body operating at arm’s length from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, part of wider reforms that started last summer after it emerged developers were facing long delays.
At the same time, BSR chair Lord Andy Roe said it had managed to lower its gateway 2 backlog to 29 cases, following his pledge to make “significant headway” through the backlog by the end of last year. Roe said decision times for gateway 2 approvals had been shortened to around 13 weeks, a significant improvement compared with reports from the start of 2025, when FOI requests revealed the BSR was taking an average of six months to approve new high-rise developments.
The new data highlights an emerging problem at gateway 3, and Irwin Mitchell urged the BSR, government and industry to work collaboratively to streamline the approvals process and ensure the building safety regime “delivers on its promise to protect residents while enabling the safe delivery of new homes”.
Vijay Bange, national head of construction at Irwin Mitchell, said: “We fully support the need for a strong, independent regulator and recognise the importance of rigorous oversight. But our FOI findings show that the current gateway 3 process is not delivering decisions within the statutory timeframe.
“Thousands of completed homes are sitting empty for months on end. This is financially damaging for developers and deeply frustrating for residents waiting to move into safe, modern homes.
“The transition to a standalone regulator provides an opportunity for improvement, but the delays we are seeing now are unsustainable. Greater transparency, clearer communication and better resourcing are essential if gateway 3 is to operate effectively.”
The BSR has been contacted for comment. In January, it told Property Week it was aware of the need for timely approvals at gateway 3 and was working closely with the sector to ensure applications are assessed efficiently.
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