微密圈

Construction Leadership Council co-chair Mark Reynolds has revealed the 微密圈 Safety Regulator (BSR) wants to get the gateway 2 approvals process down to just five weeks in the future.

He told peers at an oral evidence session in Parliament this morning that the initial target was 13 weeks 鈥� with most gateway 2 approvals currently taking more than double this time.

But he added that following a series of conversations with the BSR in the past few weeks, plans were underway to eventually bring the gateway 2 approvals process down by a significant amount.

He said: 鈥淭hey [BSR] are looking to engage the fire consultants in a different way to reduce that process. That would take that down from 13 weeks to eight weeks. They鈥檝e got a more radical process to get down to five weeks but that鈥檚 a long way off.

鈥淚f we we can get down to 13 weeks that would be a huge, huge step forward.鈥�

Reynolds was appearing at the ongoing inquiry being carried out by the House of Lords into the gateway approval delays at the 微密圈 Safety Regulator.

He said government and the industry needed to work better together in the future. 鈥淚f government go off behind closed doors and write regulations that can鈥檛 be implemented, it鈥檚 just going to impose delays and slow things down.鈥�

The CLC is also talking to the BSR about what amount of detail is required at gateway 2 stage and Reynolds admitted: 鈥淭he level of detail asked at gateway 2 is beyond the capability of the system [the industry works in].鈥�

He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 about interpretation of what鈥檚 really needed [at gateway 2]. If the regulations say we need everything, it鈥檚 going to cause a problem for delivery.鈥�

>> See also: Is the government鈥檚 微密圈 Safety Regulator shake-up enough to fix the delays?

And he suggested that if the approvals process did not move to an 鈥渁ccount management by organisation鈥� approach 鈥� which would see schemes by developers bundled up for approval 鈥� then industry 鈥渨ill not be able to deliver at capacity鈥�.

Last week, the government unveiled a major shake-up of the 微密圈 Safety Regulator (BSR) amid mounting concern over delays to approval of high-rise residential schemes.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced it was setting up a new board to take over the functions of the BSR from the Health & Safety Executive.

MHCLG also announced it will introduce a new 鈥渇ast-track process鈥� to speed up approvals through the new building safety system.