Gateway 2 approvals reached 82% across all higher-risk building categories in the 12 weeks to 1 August 2026, and the median decision time for new build applications has halved in a year. For anyone drafting or renegotiating development timetables, the planning assumption that has governed higher-risk building work since 2023 no longer holds.
What do the latest figures show?
The Building Safety Regulator published its building control approval application data on 5 August 2026, covering the 12-week rolling period to 1 August, during which it made 349 Gateway 2 decisions across all higher-risk building categories and approved 287 of them.
The movement is concentrated in new build. Applications for new higher-risk buildings and conversions were approved at 91%, with a median determination time of 22 weeks, against an approval rate of 39% and a median of 43 weeks in the equivalent period a year earlier, which is the comparison that matters for anyone whose programme assumptions were set before the summer of 2025. In London the approval rate for that category reached 93%. The 45 new build approvals issued during the period cover 7,587 residential units now progressing through the regime.
Remediation of existing buildings has moved too, though from a different starting point and for different reasons, since the constraint there has been the quality and completeness of applications rather than the assessment capacity behind them. The regulator approved 85% of 110 remediation applications nationally, covering more than 7,400 residential units, and 92% in London. That already exceeds its 65% target for the end of 2026.
Where is the backlog still sitting?
Internal refurbishment work is the answer, and it is not a small corner of the caseload. Category A and B internal refurbishment applications are running at a 77% approval rate with a median determination time of 32 weeks for approvals. The regulator is managing 981 active cases for internal works and made 166 decisions on them in the reporting period, which is roughly 49% of all Gateway 2 decisions.
Read the 32-week figure carefully, because it is a median across a caseload that still contains legacy applications submitted under the previous model, and those legacy cases drag the central figure well above what a new applicant should now expect. Internal refurbishment applications submitted during 2026 are being determined in a median of 16 weeks. Across all categories, 2026 applications are running at 21 weeks.
That gap between the headline median and the current cohort median is the single most useful thing in the dataset for anyone advising on a live project, because it is the difference between quoting a client the regulator’s published average and quoting them the period their own application is likely to take. A 2026 application is not being assessed against the same queue as a 2024 one.
What changed at the regulator?
The Innovation Unit, set up in August 2025 to streamline new build assessment, accounts for most of the improvement, having brought multidisciplinary assessment teams in-house and introduced dedicated account managers, consistency panels and improved application tracking. Its approval rate for non-complex applications has moved from 39% to 91% over the year.
Process changes sit alongside it. The external remediation plan was introduced in April 2026, and new guidance setting out both the level of detail expected in applications and the common shortfalls that cause rejection followed on 22 June 2026, which together address the two failure modes that had been generating the most rework. The regulator also became a standalone non-departmental public body sponsored by MHCLG in January 2026.
What does this mean for development agreements?
Most higher-risk building contracts currently in force were negotiated against determination periods that no longer describe reality. A longstop date built on a 43-week assumption has considerably more headroom against a 22-week median, and that cuts in both directions depending on which side of the transaction a client sits.
Developers and funders who priced delay into programme, contingency or drawdown conditions may find those provisions are now generous. Contractors and consultants facing liquidated damages tied to a Gateway 2 milestone may find the opposite, because a delay that was previously attributable to regulatory queue is harder to characterise that way when the current cohort is clearing in 16 to 22 weeks.
Two cautions belong in any advice built on these numbers. Approval rates include the enhanced approval with requirements route, so an approval is not necessarily an unconditional one, and requirements attached to a Gateway 2 approval can carry their own programme consequences. And the figures are 12-week rolling medians, which means a single complex application can still sit well outside them.
The regulator’s stated targets take this further. It is aiming for 18 weeks on non-complex Gateway 2 applications and 12 weeks on remediation applications by March 2027. Contracts being drafted now will run into that period.
If you are drafting or renegotiating development agreements, funding conditions or longstop dates on a higher-risk building, the underlying assumption has changed. A 22-week median for new build is not the 43 weeks that most existing contracts were negotiated against, and the regulator’s own target takes it to 18 weeks by March 2027. Clients who priced in substantial regulatory delay may now have room they can use. Those who agreed generous longstops on the other side of the table may face pressure to justify them at the next review.
Gateway 2 performance by category
| Category | Approval rate | Median determination | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| All categories | 82% | 287 approvals from 349 decisions | |
| New HRBs and conversions | 91% | 22 weeks | 39% and 43 weeks a year earlier |
| Existing building remediation | 85% | 110 applications; 92% in London | |
| Internal refurbishment (A and B) | 77% | 32 weeks | 16 weeks for 2026 applications |
Figures are drawn from the regulator’s published building control approval application data, which is issued on a rolling 12-week basis and includes the category breakdowns and live caseload numbers referred to above.
Property teams tracking the wider reform programme may find our coverage of what home buying reform means for conveyancers from 2026 and the upfront information packs guide useful alongside this, since both bear on how transaction timetables are being reset across the sector.