The Week in Housing: ‘Landmark’ building safety ruling, more BSR changes, and murder investigation progresses

By March 2027, the BSR expects to take 18 weeks or less to respond to a Gateway 2 application for a new building in non-complex cases.

For remediation in the same period, the BSR expects to have the same level of approval rating, but will take 12 weeks or less to respond to an application in non-complex cases.

It also unveiled plans to speed up essential safety work on higher-risk buildings across England, in an attempt to confront a mounting backlog.

However, all these additional changes come as sector experts told Inside Housing that while earlier moves to cut the workload of the BSR could mean many high-rise projects are spared a three-month wait for sign-off, this may also raise the risk of non-compliance.

Alongside building safety concerns, we heard this week how the government’s proposed new Future Homes Standard could pose viability challenges as social landlords navigate the use of new technology and take action on overheating.

In the latest update from the police, a 50-year-old man accused of murdering Helen Bird, who was the customer voice and influence manager at Amplius, will face trial in August.

In Northern Ireland, the co-ownership property value limit will be increased from mid-April, in a move aimed at widening access to homeownership and reflecting market realities.

Concern was raised in Wales that an over-reliance on a small number of major developers is constraining housing delivery.

At the same time, the Green Heat Network Fund has been extended across the Welsh nation to accelerate its path to net zero by 2050.

The Scottish Housing Regulator’s latest annual risk assessment set out how systemic failure in homelessness services and the provision of temporary accommodation remains a “major risk”.

Plus, an upcoming report will look to evidence how much Scotland’s housing associations are adding to the country’s economy, informing incoming MSPs after the May 2026 Holyrood elections.

In England, the government has launched a consultation on updating the tenure standard for social housing, ahead of major tenancy reforms planned for 2027.

Inside Housing published a number of long reads this week, including an interview with L&Q’s executive director of property and investment about how he manages the landlord’s 105,000 homes and its new build programme.

We also looked at how London’s Newlon Housing Trust is trialling a full power outage and simulating a fire, to see how its systems will respond in an emergency.

Finally, we published March’s round-up of top-level housing sector appointments.

Have a great weekend.

Stephen Delahunty, news editor, Inside Housing

Say hello: stephen.delahunty@oceanmedia.co.uk

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