CLC light at the end of the new HRB tunnel

The CLC has announced that as part of its work with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) they are “addressing priority areas and maximising communication to the industry on building control approval for all higher-risk building (HRB) work”.

The CLC is prioritising the building control approval (gateways) process for new HRBs and is setting up a task group to “support the submission, assessment and timely approval of high quality and compliant building control applications for new HRBs.” This welcome news makes a lot of sense because whilst in theory building control approval applications to the BSR are processed in the order in which they come in, the BSR is currently prioritising remediation work, in alignment with government priorities, and the backlog that has built up since the new regime came into force.

The BSR has often made reference to a long list of guidance it would like to produce on the new building control approval process at some point and it alluded in an HSE/BSR webinar at the end of February to looking to work with the CLC to find industry partners who can help produce guidance on specific elements of the process. The CLC announcement includes an HRB process map of the building control approval process for new HRBs – stated to be the first clear summary of the whole application process from gateway 1 to gateway 3 – and the further welcome news that the CLC intends to issue more detailed information and guidance on specific elements of the process in the coming weeks.

The announcement also offers some tips as to how best to approach the building control approval process, echoing the sentiments of the BSR, including the advice to approach the HRB building control approval process with gateway 3 in mind because that is what applicants are ultimately working towards – how is applicant going to show that their building work meets the functional requirements of the building regulations: describe it to the BSR at gateway 2, collect the evidence throughout the construction phase between gateways 2 and 3, and provide that evidence to the BSR at gateway 3.

It’s fair to say that the industry is concerned about the length of time it’s taking to get gateway 2 approval, what a gateway 2 application should look like and the challenge of trying to communicate with the BSR about those gateway 2 applications, and the length of time those circumstances might continue. Hopefully the CLC light at the end of the new HRB tunnel will help to improve the situation for new HRB applications sooner than feared.