The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) have met to discuss industry concerns in relation to building control applications. Proactive dialogue will continue over the forthcoming weeks to address priority areas and maximise communication to the industry.
Following the initial meeting, the BSR have stated that:
“We recognise the challenges and issues that recent delays to building control application approvals are causing industry. We want to assure everyone that the necessary contingency is in place which will allow us to stabilise and improve the service over the coming months and for the future. We are contacting all applicants who have been directly affected.
New applications will not go into the backlog and be processed within normal timelines.
While in part the delays have arisen due to an unexpected increase in applications coming into BSR, we are also experiencing a high number of applications which are incomplete or are unclear, making them unsuitable for approval. This is particularly the case for smaller refurbishment projects and work on existing buildings.
As the regulator, we will not:
- tell you how to comply with the requirements of the building regulations
• provide pre-application advice on building control applications.
For some complex projects we may provide advice on the best way of staging your application. For example, multi-building projects.
Advice on the buildings regulations, if needed, should be sought from competent professionals.
We need applicants to play their part to help facilitate the process by ensuring their applications provide quality, detailed information that clearly and comprehensively demonstrates compliance with building regulations.
High quality applications help BSR make informed decisions quickly, reducing the risk of misinterpretation and ensure all building control standards are met. Applications which lack the required detailed information or fail to demonstrate clear compliance will be rejected.
Applicants do not need to contact BSR again after they have submitted their applications. We will contact applicants directly where necessary, for example if we need to request further information or when applications are moving forward.“
The new building safety regulatory regime which included including building control brought significant changes and will require a step change for all working in the industry. The industry needs to be aware of their responsibilities and ensure that they have the required competencies for their specific role to undertake work.
Building Control applications that are submitted to the BSR must be high quality and contain sufficient detail appropriate for the application to allow the Regulator to review and process them as quickly as possible.
