Guidance agreed by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) gives new details on how developers can submit partial designs at gateway two if they can still prove their buildings will comply with Building Regulations.
The guidance, released today by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), provides wording describing the Approval with Requirements route for building control applications for higher-risk buildings.
This little-known route has been available for some time, although awareness among developers and housebuilders is understood to have been patchy until now, with no written guidance on the matter until today.
The guidance says: “The baseline to any Approval with Requirements approach is that the initial building control application needs to show sufficient information to allow the BSR to be satisfied that the finished building can and will comply with the Building Regulations even though certain aspects remain outstanding at that time.”
Designs need to be taken to a point where the requirements of Building Regulations are met, “without having to have a particular product specified or absolute final detailed drawings/documents provided”, according to the guidance.
“Approaching design in this way also aims to ease the regulatory burden on both the applicant and BSR by reducing the need for multiple change records and approvals that would be otherwise required during the construction phase,” it adds.
It remains illegal for any work to commence before a full design is submitted for each specific element of work and approved by the BSR, the guidance says.
The document stresses that although Approval with Requirements provides “some flexibility”, it should only be used:
- on applications containing a minor error or omission where “BSR is satisfied that it can be dealt with by a simple agreement with the applicant”
- where the applicant provides a clear and comprehensive application that demonstrates that the building will comply with Building Regulations and includes a plan for submission of further Approval with Requirements design, including a timeline for delivery
“Approval with Requirements cannot be used to obtain approval to proceed with inadequate design,” the guidance says. “Such applications will be rejected.”
One fire safety expert told Construction News: “Approval with Requirements is potentially a very useful approach that could really help the Gateway 2 process.
“Until now, there has been very little awareness of it – it hasn’t really been publicised very much and there has been no documentation on situations where it would apply and how to use it.”
The guidance also includes detailed instructions on the format, file structure and naming conventions of documents submitted as part of BSR applications.
It also recommends that applicants contact the BSR before submitting a staged application where building work is divided into different stages.
Work on the new guidance was led by Karl Whiteman, Berkeley Group divisional managing director and industry sponsor for the CLC’s Building Safety Workstream.
He said: “The CLC has worked closely with the BSR and a broad range of leading technical experts from across the sector to develop robust and practical guidance for gateway two applications.
“This will help to improve the quality of submissions, ensure the regulator can approve them swiftly and consistently, and enable the sector to increase the delivery of safe and high-quality homes.”
Tim Galloway, deputy director at the Health and Safety Executive, within which the BSR sits, said: “Applications that clearly demonstrate compliance are approved faster, and everyone in BSR wants those designs and plans off the page and onto site as quickly as possible.”