Gateway 3 New-build Applications

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Two things are under way, one of which is working with the industry to identify those issues; it is very important that the remediation programme is well under way. The BSR has established a dedicated external remediation team responsible for assessing all building control approval applications relating to cladding remediation, so that is under way already. The other work the team has been doing is to make sure that, with applications that are not dependent on some of the work that can go on in the interim, that work can progress, so we are not holding up final approvals but letting people get on with what can be done in the meantime. I am sure that will help to unlock some of the hold-ups that have been in the system so far.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, if this were one isolated regulator falling down on the job, that would be one thing; but one after another, these quango regulators are failing. Is it not time to look not just at an individual regulator but at the whole model and the sort of people appointed to these jobs?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord may be aware that one recommendation of the Grenfell report was to have a single building regulator. Progress is being made towards that—a single body is being set up with oversight of the building safety regulator. We need to move this forward very quickly, but it is important that we get it right as we do so. We need to work with the industry to deliver the single construction regulator in a way that will work effectively for everybody. The new body has been established through a statutory instrument, which was laid on 11 November. So progress is being made, and we need to make sure that we move this on as quickly as we can.