Building Safety Regulator gateways for planning teams

Planning teams meet the building safety gateways planning regime at one point, Gateway One, and then hand the building to a process that runs on a different clock with a different regulator. Understanding what happens after you leave matters, because Gateways Two and Three can force design changes that the planning permission does not allow.

The regime comes from the Building Safety Act 2022 and the regulations made under it. Gateway One sits at planning, Gateway Two before construction starts, and Gateway Three before occupation. Only the first is a planning process at all.

The three gateways and where planning sits

Gateway One is the planning stage. For a relevant building, article 9A of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 requires a fire statement with the application, and the Health and Safety Executive, acting as the Building Safety Regulator, is a statutory consultee. The output is an ordinary planning permission, informed by the regulator's response.

Gateway Two is a building control approval application made to the Building Safety Regulator before building work on a higher-risk building may start. The regulator, rather than a local authority building control team or an approved inspector, is the building control authority for these buildings.

Gateway Three is the completion stage. A completion certificate application goes to the regulator, and the building cannot be occupied until the certificate is issued and the building is registered.

The definition of a higher-risk building for construction purposes broadly follows the height and storey test at planning, being at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more residential units, so most buildings that needed a Fire Statement will also go through Gateways Two and Three. The two tests are not word for word identical, which is why the question of whether a scheme is a relevant building at planning stage is answered separately from whether it is a higher-risk building at construction stage. Which planning applications need a fire statement deals with the planning side of that question.

Where the two regimes disagree about the same building

The height and storey tests read similarly, but they were written for different purposes and they are applied by different bodies at different moments in a project's life.

Three mismatches recur. A scheme whose topmost storey sits marginally below 18 metres at planning can cross the threshold once the finished floor level is set against the as-built ground level. A building that contains educational accommodation is a relevant building at planning but may not be a higher-risk building for construction purposes. And a phased scheme can have a single planning permission covering blocks that are treated differently at Gateway Two.

Resolve the categorisation in writing at the outset, and record the reasoning in the design team's risk register. An assumption carried from the planning application into the construction programme is the most common cause of a late and expensive discovery.

What Gateway Two requires before construction

The application is a full building control approval application supported by design and construction information that shows the building will comply with the building regulations. That means developed design, not planning-stage information.

The practical shift is in maturity. A scheme that would historically have started on site with the structural package complete and the facade still being developed cannot do that here. The regulator assesses the application as submitted, and a submission with gaps is more likely to be rejected than queried.

Statutory determination periods apply, measured in weeks rather than days, and extensions are commonly agreed between the regulator and the applicant. Treat the period in the regulations as the floor rather than the expectation, and confirm the current periods before fixing a programme.

Work must not start before approval. There is no equivalent of starting on the strength of a building notice.

Change control during construction

Once approval is granted, changes are controlled. The regulations distinguish changes that must be notified from those that need the regulator's approval before they are made, and the categories are defined by the effect of the change rather than by its cost.

This is the part planning teams most need to understand, because a change forced by a planning condition lands in the same system. Discharging a materials condition with a different cladding specification, or agreeing a revised balcony detail with the case officer, can be a change requiring the regulator's approval, and the sequence matters. Agreeing it with planning first and with the regulator afterwards can leave a scheme with a permission it cannot lawfully build.

Keep a single change register covering both regimes. One column for the planning consequence, one for the building safety consequence, one for who has agreed what and when.

Gateway Three and occupation

The completion certificate application goes to the regulator with as-built information, including the golden thread of building information that has been maintained through construction. The regulator may inspect. Occupation before a completion certificate is issued and the building is registered is an offence.

For a developer, the exposure is commercial rather than technical. Sales completions, tenancy start dates and funding milestones all sit on the far side of a decision the developer does not control. Build float into the programme at this point rather than at the start.

What a gateway problem does to a planning permission

A gateway refusal does not revoke a planning permission, and a planning permission does not oblige the regulator to approve anything. The two consents are independent, and a scheme needs both.

The awkward outcomes come from divergence. Where the regulator requires a second stair, a wider firefighting shaft, a different external wall build-up or a change to the ground floor layout, the permitted drawings no longer describe the building. Depending on the scale, the answer is a non-material amendment under section 96A, a section 73 application to vary the approved plans condition, or a fresh application.

Timing makes it worse. A section 73 application takes eight weeks for a minor scheme and longer for a major one, and it may attract fresh consultation responses on matters unrelated to fire safety. That is why single-stair questions and external wall specifications are better resolved before the planning application is submitted than after.

Coordinating the two consent tracks

Six habits keep the tracks aligned:

1. Fix the evacuation strategy and stair arrangement before the planning drawings are frozen, not during Gateway Two design development
2. Ask the fire engineer to review the draft conditions on the planning permission before the decision is issued, particularly materials and detailed design conditions
3. Write conditions in performance terms where possible, so that a compliant variation does not automatically require a planning amendment
4. Maintain one drawing register serving both submissions, with a single revision sequence
5. Budget for one section 73 application on any higher-risk scheme, because divergence is common
6. Record the regulator's Gateway One response and check the final design against every point in it before the Gateway Two submission

The reform programme here is still settling, and further changes to procedure and timescales have been signalled. Follow developments on the planning law timeline and verify the current position with the regulator before relying on any particular period.

Where PlanScope drafts supporting documents for a scheme of this kind, it produces AI-assisted drafts structured to UK planning policy, with site facts flagged rather than invented. Fire engineering and building control submissions require qualified professional input. You can see how the planning-stage documents fit together on the report index.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.