Lords call for BSR reform

The cross-party House of Lords ‘Industry and Regulators’ Committee, chaired by Baroness Taylor of Bolton, has described delays caused by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) as “unacceptable” and called for urgent action to address the impact on high-rise housing delivery and building safety.

The committee’s inquiry found that the BSR is taking far longer than its statutory targets to approve new developments and remediation works, with only a third of decisions made on time and some taking more than 40 weeks.

Alex Delin, Construction Partner at Law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: “Hopefully we will see better guidance for applicants to demonstrate their buildings are safe, less delay due to erroneous applications (that the Lords report finds can easily be resolved) and building inspectors and planning authorities working in tandem with applicants as applications progress.”

Keystone Law’s Construction Consultant Solicitor Neave Maguire said: “Eight years after Grenfell, the Committee’s inquiry paints a clear picture: the BSR is not yet functioning effectively and the regulator’s own evidence confirms that view. The ambition of the post-Grenfell regime is sound, but its implementation is currently impeding both safety outcomes and housing delivery.”

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