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    Gateway 3 delays and 5,000 empty homes: regulatory lessons for project teams

    February 16, 2026|

    Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

    Gateway 3 delays and 5,000 empty homes: regulatory lessons for project teams

    First reported on The Construction Index

    30 Second Briefing

    Delays at the Building Safety Regulator’s Gateway 3 stage are linked by law firm Irwin Mitchell to 44 undecided schemes and 5,594 completed higher-risk residential units remaining unoccupied, with one case waiting 550 days against an eight‑week target. Of 158 Gateway 3 applications in 2023, 55 took more than three months for a decision, raising concerns over cashflow impacts on developers and handover timing for residents. The BSR disputes the interpretation, stating no new-build higher-risk building that passed Gateway 2 has yet applied for Gateway 3 and that current cases are mainly transitional legacy projects with significant safety issues.

    Technical Brief

    • Gateway 3 is the statutory post-completion approval required before occupation of higher-risk buildings.
    • Higher-risk buildings under this regime are generally residential blocks ≥18 m or ≥7 storeys.
    • The Building Safety Regulator oversees all three gateways, with Gateway 2 at pre-construction design and Gateway 3 at completion.
    • Gateway 3 approvals are intended to be completed within eight weeks.
    • Irwin Mitchell obtained the Gateway 3 performance data via a formal freedom of information (FOI) request.
    • BSR states no new-build higher-risk building that has passed Gateway 2 has yet applied for Gateway 3.
    • Current Gateway 3 new-build cases are described by BSR as “transitional legacy” projects transferred from former building control bodies.
    • BSR reports “significant safety issues” identified in some legacy projects, requiring proactive remediation before occupation approval.

    Our Take

    The same Building Safety Regulator (BSR) bottlenecks seen at Gateway 3 echo earlier Gateway 2 delays in our coverage, such as the 42‑week approval for Downing’s Newcastle student scheme (15 Dec 2025), signalling systemic capacity or process constraints rather than isolated cases.

    With 18 metres set as the higher‑risk threshold, schemes like Clegg Construction’s 12‑storey Sheffield build‑to‑rent block (Gateway 2 approval reported 7 Jan 2026) show that developers of taller concrete‑frame residential blocks are already adapting to extended regulatory lead times in programme planning.

    Across recent UK ‘Safety / Projects’ policy pieces in our database, BSR timing risk is emerging as a distinct programme driver alongside planning and funding risk, meaning contractors and clients now often need separate schedule allowances specifically for Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 decisions.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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