The Gateway Brief
Gateway 2 approvals: the projects moving in summer 2026
The BSR decided 45 new higher-risk building and conversion applications in the 12 weeks to 1 August 2026, approving 91% and 7,587 residential units. The comparable August 2025 approval rate was 39%; median approval time has fallen from 43 to 22 weeks. At least six newly approved schemes were publicly named.
Rolling 12-week periods. Approval rates exclude invalidations and withdrawals.
Source: Building Safety Regulator, data to 1 August 2026. The two points are matched year-on-year snapshots, not monthly observations; the connecting line shows direction, not intervening values.
What changed in the last three months?
Gateway 2 is no longer producing the same numbers it produced a year ago. In the 12 weeks to 1 August 2026, the Building Safety Regulator made 45 decisions on new higher-risk buildings and conversions. The approval rate, excluding invalid and withdrawn applications, was 91%. Those approvals represented 7,587 residential units.
The matched comparison is stark. In the 12 weeks to August 2025, new-build approval was 39% and median approval time was 43 weeks. By August 2026 those figures were 91% and 22 weeks. That is a 52-percentage-point rise in approval and a 21-week reduction in the median.
This is recovery, but it is not the statutory 12-week service the regulations describe. The latest median is still ten weeks beyond that benchmark, and 131 live new-build and conversion applications, representing 30,421 units, remain under assessment. London accounts for 65% of those applications.
According to BSR data to 1 August 2026, 45 new HRB and conversion decisions achieved a 91% approval rate and unlocked 7,587 residential units. Median approval time was 22 weeks, compared with 43 weeks in August 2025.
Source: Building Safety Regulator. Data verified 11 August 2026.
Which recently approved projects can be named?
The table records schemes publicly confirmed between 11 May and 11 August 2026. It is not a register of every approval. BSR's operational release is aggregated; project names become public only when a client, contractor or journalist discloses them.
| Project | Location | Client / developer | Contractor | Scale | Public confirmation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vivere Residences, Cornbrook | Manchester | Forshaw Land & Property | Domis | 237 flats + 88-key aparthotel | 15 June 2026 |
| Plymouth Grove PBSA | Manchester | Far East Orchard | HG Construction | PBSA, completion targeted 2028 | 27 July 2026 |
| Eastmoor Street, Charlton Riverside | Greenwich, London | Hyde | Formation Design & Build | 182 affordable homes | 4 August 2026 |
| York Gate | Bristol | Donard Real Estate | HG Construction | 221 BTR homes | 7 August 2026 |
| Apex Manchester, Ardwick | Manchester | Far East Orchard / Woh Hup | HG Construction | 239 student beds | 7 August 2026 |
| Stour Road Phase 2 | Hackney, London | Firethorn | HG Construction | 204 student beds | 7 August 2026 |
Tide Construction also disclosed that several approvals had released a portfolio of projects worth more than £500 million, with 30 Marsh Wall pictured as one scheme moving into main superstructure work. The report did not identify every approved project or map each decision to a date, so it is not folded into the scheme count above. That is the standard this tracker will use: a project enters the named table only when the public evidence supports the name and approval status.
What do the projects tell us that the aggregate data does not?
First, the recovery is not confined to a single tenure. The disclosed schemes cover BTR, affordable housing, PBSA and mixed residential/hospitality. Second, repeat applicants are building institutional knowledge. HG's three August approvals took its reported total to 15. Repetition matters because document structures, responsibility matrices and responses to regulator queries improve with each submission.
Third, approval does not prove a design is flawless, and it should not be advertised as a product endorsement. It means BSR has approved the proposed building work on the submitted information and any stated requirements. Construction-phase change control, inspection, testing and the Gateway 3 evidence burden still follow.
Has Gateway 2 been fixed?
Not yet. The Innovation Unit has improved triage, brought multidisciplinary resources closer to the assessment and introduced account management for difficult cases. The result is visible. But three qualifications matter.
The 22-week median remains above the statutory period. The published approval rate excludes invalidations and withdrawals, so it is not the percentage of all submissions that sail through first time. And the public cannot independently audit which schemes make up the aggregate because there is no official project-level decision register.
The practical conclusion is narrower and more useful: a mature, coordinated application now has a materially better prospect of moving than it did last summer. That is not permission to compress design. It is evidence that front-loading design and explaining the compliance route are beginning to be rewarded.
Methodology and limitations
The statistical comparison uses BSR's rolling 12-week new-HRB-and-conversion series, matching the period to August 2026 with the period to August 2025. A rolling window overlaps adjacent releases and should not be summed as if each release were a distinct quarter. Approval rates exclude invalidations and withdrawals. The line chart joins two year-on-year observations and does not claim monthly values between them.
The named-project search covered BSR publications, Construction Enquirer and publicly accessible developer, contractor and specialist housing reports. It records the date of public confirmation, which may be later than the regulator's decision date.
Frequently asked questions
- How many new Gateway 2 projects were approved in the latest period?
- BSR made 45 decisions on new HRBs and conversions in the 12 weeks to 1 August 2026 and reported a 91% approval rate after excluding invalidations and withdrawals from the rate calculation.
- Does the BSR publish the names of every approved Gateway 2 project?
- No. The regulator publishes aggregate operational data but not a complete public scheme-level register. Named-project lists compiled from developers, contractors and trade media are therefore useful but necessarily incomplete.
Primary and supporting sources
This page is information, not legal advice. It is written and maintained by a practitioner, verified against primary sources on the date shown above, and corrected fast when the regime moves. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.