Who is the BSR now? Leadership, the MHCLG move and what changed
Since June 2025 the Building Safety Regulator has been led by chair Andy Roe and chief executive Charlie Pugsley, with 100+ new staff, a Fast Track Process and an Innovation Unit. On 27 January 2026 it left the HSE to become a standalone public body under MHCLG, en route to becoming the single construction regulator.
What happened in June 2025?
By mid 2025 the numbers had become politically unsurvivable: a 12-week statutory clock, 43-week national averages, 48 in London, schemes redesigning below 18m to escape the queue, and contractors reporting turnover damage in their accounts. The government's answer was to take the BSR out of the Health and Safety Executive and rebuild it: Andy Roe, who had led the London Fire Brigade, arrived as chair; Charlie Pugsley as chief executive; more than a hundred new staff joined; and two new delivery mechanisms launched, a Fast Track Process for the backlog and an Innovation Unit for new-build applications.
The second structural step came on 27 January 2026, when the BSR became a standalone public body sponsored by MHCLG. The machinery-of-government logic matters: the Grenfell Inquiry's Phase 2 report had recommended a single construction regulator with functions consolidated under one department, and a standalone BSR under the housing department is the chassis that regulator can be built on.
What scrutiny has it faced?
The most comprehensive external examination came in December 2025, when the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee published its review of the BSR, examining the backlog era and the recovery measures. The regulator has also published its building control data through the period, which is why the recovery can be tracked in numbers rather than press releases; our timescales page charts them release by release.
What should applicants take from the new BSR?
Three practical things. First, capacity is real but concentrated: batching and the Innovation Unit are where the speed lives, and submissions that fit their models, complete, well-organised, resolved, inherit their timelines. Second, the regulator's feedback loops are now explicit: it names why applications fail at Gateway 2 and why they stall at Gateway 3, which means an applicant who reads the regulator's own guidance is working from the marking scheme. Third, the direction of travel is more regulator, not less: a standalone body under MHCLG, absorbing functions on the way to the single construction regulator, is not an institution betting against its own regime. Plan programmes, contracts and evidence discipline accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
- Why was the BSR taken out of the HSE?
- Because the Gateway 2 backlog had become a national housing problem. By October 2025 average decision times had reached 43 weeks nationally and 48 in London against a 12-week statutory target. The June 2025 reset gave the regulator dedicated leadership, more assessors and new processes, and the January 2026 move to MHCLG completed the separation.
- Who leads the Building Safety Regulator?
- Andy Roe, formerly London Fire Brigade commissioner, chairs the regulator, with Charlie Pugsley as chief executive. Both arrived in the June 2025 reset that also brought more than a hundred additional staff.
- What difference has the reset made for applicants?
- Measurable throughput. Decisions rose from roughly 200 in Q1 2025 to more than 700 in Q4 2025, the twelve weeks to 30 May 2026 saw 358 decisions at a 75% approval rate, batching medians run 12 to 14 weeks, and the legacy backlog fell to low single figures by spring 2026.
Related
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.