Building Safety Act Gateway Applications: A Summary

Last updated: 24th March 2026

Under the Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) and the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) new building safety regime, Higher-Risk Buildings (HRB) must pass through three gateways to obtain building control approval before any building work can take place as it is an offence to carry out unauthorised building work. This gateway system is designed to make HRBs in England safer, improve accountability, and ensure ongoing compliance.

Download your Guide to the Three Building Safety Act Gateways to find out whether your building requires a gateway application and what the Gateway 2 application process looks like, including a handy Gateway 2 Checklist to assess your application. 

The three Building Safety Act gateways

The Act introduces mandatory stopping points, referred to as “gateways”, at the planning and construction phases for HRBs. On 27th March 2025, detailed government guidance was published outlining the building control approval process. This blog will break down the key points of each gateway and support your gateway application journey.

Planning Gateway 1: land use matters related to fire safety

Planning Gateway 1 refers to the planning application stage for new buildings. Although it is a critical part of the Building Safety Act 2022 framework, this gateway was introduced under the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 and came into effect on 1st August 2021.

This stage ensures that fire safety is embedded into the building’s design from the earliest stages, with developers required to submit a fire statement as part of the planning application. This document must outline fire safety considerations specific to the proposed development.

The fire statement will be reviewed by the BSR, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), acting as a statutory consultee, and the local Fire and Rescue Service where necessary.

Key points:

• Planning Gateway 1 primarily applies to new HRBs or major refurbishments.
• This gateway does not typically apply to existing HRBs unless substantial alterations requiring a new planning application are proposed.
• All planning applications must be submitted electronically in PDF format and each file must not exceed one gigabyte (GB) in size.

Gateway 2: building control approval for higher-risk buildings

The BSR has made significant progress cutting the backlog of legacy Gateway 2 new‑build cases, reducing them from 103 down to 63, with more reductions expected as new approvals are lined up. 

However, remediation/refurbishment projects remain bottlenecked, with open cases rising from 262 to 283, and decision times averaging 30 weeks.

As of 24th November 2025, the BSR had issued 272 decisions, bringing the total to 578 since August 2025.

• The approval rate remains at 73%.
• 76% of decisions relate to London‑based schemes.
• Common rejection reasons include incomplete information, missing safety documentation, or insufficient legal compliance.

Looking for expert support in understanding Gateway 2? Join our next free live webinar, 'Building Safety: Gateways, Golden Thread, and Building Heights', on Wednesday 18th March at 12pm, to hear expert insights into the gateway process and have your questions answered by our building safety specialists. 

What needs an application?

Often, the first hurdle for organisations is understanding whether you need to make a building control application to the BSR. Use the following bullet points to determine whether an application is required:

• Are you undertaking building work? Building work is defined in Regulation 3 of the Building Regulations 2010, and includes activities such as material alterations - where, as a result of the work, any part of the building ceases to comply with the Building Regulations at any point.
• Is the work wholly exempt or wholly competent person scheme work?
• Is it an emergency repair?

Once you have confirmed that your project constitutes building work and requires a building control application, your next step is to determine whether the BSR is the correct building control authority for your case. This depends on whether the work is being carried out on a higher-risk building.

But what is a Higher-Risk Building (HRB)? The gateway process applies to buildings with at least two residential units which are at least 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys. Click here to find out whether your building is a HRB.

Under the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023, there are two key categories of work for Gateways 2 and 3:

• HRB work:
  • The construction of a new HRB.
  • Work to an existing non-HRB causing it to become an HRB.
  • An existing non-HRB undergoing a material change of use to become an HRB, for example, converting an office block into flats or apartments.

• Work to Existing HRBs (works that do not fall under the definition of ‘HRB work’):
  • Category A (higher-risk works).
  • Category B (lower-risk works).

Some exceptions exist under Competent Person Schemes (outlined in Regulation 20 and 20A of the Building Regulations 2010), which allow certain qualified tradespeople to self-certify work. However, some schemes, like FENSA, no longer certify work for buildings over 18 metres.

Category A works (major works) include:

• New builds or significant refurbishments.
• Structural changes and major installations, for example, installing additional floors or reconfiguring the internal layout to create more residential units.
• Installation of major systems (e.g. HVAC, electrical, plumbing) unless covered by a Competent Person Scheme.

Category B works (minor works) include:

• Repairs, maintenance, or minor alterations of existing HRBs.
• Installing partitioning or reconfiguring specific areas of the building.
• System upgrades or repairs (e.g. electrical, plumbing).
• Enhancements to fire safety measures in specific areas (e.g. updating fire doors or improving escape routes).

Common application pitfalls

Many applications are being rejected due to insufficient or non-specific details. The BSR must be confident that the proposed works can be carried out safely, and vague or generic submissions often fall short. Examples of rejection include:

• Non-specific details: One application included a generic Risk Assessment and Method Statement (RAMS) referencing gas safety procedures despite the building having no gas supply. The BSR expect all submissions to be site-specific, so if there is no gas within the building, gas should not be referenced. Irrelevant details demonstrate a lack of understanding of the actual conditions and undermine the credibility of the submission.
• Insufficient details: Another application mentioned staff were trained to alert residents during a simultaneous evacuation “as far as reasonably practicable” whilst evacuating themselves. However, it failed to explain how this would be done. In this case, the application should also clearly outline:
  • The training staff have received.
  • What equipment or methods will be used to alert residents (klaxons, knocking, shouting).
  • How the evacuation would be managed in real-time.

Emergency works

Under Regulation 10, emergency repair works are allowed without prior approval, but only where it is not practicable to comply with Regulation 11(1). In such cases:

• Submit a notice describing the works and reason for urgency to the BSR as soon as practicable. A copy must also be provided to the Responsible Person (RP) for the building.
• An application for a regularisation certificate must follow as soon as reasonably possible after completion.

During our recent webinar, Building Safety Regulator's Latest Updates for Occupied Higher-Risk Buildings, one of the most commonly asked questions concerned whether fire doors are considered building work. This comes down to the definition of a material alteration under Regulation 3 of the Building Regulations 2010.

Generally, basic repair works are not regarded as building work. In the case of fire doors, this might include tasks such as replacing the smoke or intumescent strip, which the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) would not typically consider as requiring building control approval.

However, replacing an entire fire door and leaf is considered substantial work. This kind of work would have a direct impact on passive fire safety measures. As a result, the BSR would expect a building control approval application to be submitted prior to the work taking place.

This requirement also applies to breaches in fire compartmentation, for example, drilling into a compartment wall. These kinds of works are often carried out without adequate fire stopping, and therefore require regulatory oversight to ensure resident safety. In such cases, a building control approval application would also be necessary.

What if the fire door is compromised by tenant activity?

In this situation, you would be well within your rights to use the emergency repair regulation and notify the BSR that you are repairing this. You would then put in a regularisation application once the new fire door is on and the work is completed.

Construction phase 

Once you have a confirmed commencement date, you must notify the BSR at least five working days before starting any construction work. The BSR will carry out inspections at agreed milestones during the construction phase and also reserves the right to conduct unannounced inspections at any time.

All dutyholders, including clients, principal designers, designers, principal contractors, and contractors, must continue to fulfil their responsibilities throughout this phase, including mandatory occurrence reporting and maintaining the golden thread of information.

Making changes during construction

If you need to modify approved plans, changes fall into two categories:

• Major change: A change control application must be submitted to the BSR, who then has six weeks to determine the application. No work related to the proposed change can begin until formal approval is granted.
• Notifiable change: A change control application must be submitted to the BSR, who then has 10 working days to respond. If no objection is made within this period, the change can proceed.

Gateway 3: building work complete 

Once all construction work has been completed, you will move to Gateway 3. At this stage, you must submit a completion certificate application to the BSR. This application must reflect the ‘as-built’ work, not the original ‘as-designed’ plans, and must include all relevant golden thread information.

If the BSR is satisfied, a completion certificate will be issued. If the certificate is not granted, you will need to review the reasons, resolve any issues, and resubmit before a certificate can be awarded.

This information must also be handed over to the Accountable Person (AP), who is then responsible for producing a building safety case and a building safety case report for the building. These documents will later be reviewed by the BSR when the building is called up as part of the process to obtain a Building Assessment Certificate (BAC).

To find out more about what is included in the safety case report, head over to our dedicated blog, ‘Building Safety Case Report: What you should include’.

If you need support with understanding the gateway process or ensuring compliance with the Building Safety Act 2022, reach out to speak with one of our experts.