Government consults on scrapping Gateway 2 requirement for phone masts and fibre-optic cabling

Currently these jobs require a full application to the BSR if carried out in a high-rise building – which includes a ‘Gateway 2’ application, where a full multi-disciplinary team must approve the plans as compliant with the regulator before work begins.

This process has been subject to widely publicised major delays that have slowed the development of new building and caused serious delays to major high-rise fire safety repairs.

Figures within the BSR have previously said that the regulator is responsible for overseeing too many minor works to high-rise buildings – something which has majorly impacted its capacity for oversight of more serious jobs.

In an interview with Inside Housing in November, Andy Roe, chair of the BSR, said minor works should be removed from its oversight process in order to “put resources where the risk is the greatest”.

The consultation suggests that building owners would still be required to notify the BSR about the work and that the contractor undertaking the work should hand over key information to the building owner on completion of the job – in the process known as the ‘golden thread’.

The works would still be legally required to comply with building regulations.

There are expected to be 400 phone masts and 26,000 fibre-optic cable installations in high-rise buildings over the coming year.

Inside Housing understands that the current move is the first step in removing a wider range of more minor works from the oversight of the BSR.

A further consultation is expected in the spring, which will consider moving some Category A works (the higher category of complexity according to the BSR’s rule) into Category B (the lower category). Some jobs currently designated as Category B may then pass to local authority building control teams, rather than the oversight of the BSR.

A further consultation may follow on fire doors. Currently, fire door installations sit within the BSR’s remit and the replacement of fire doors in some high-rise blocks has been seriously delayed while the building owner awaits approval.

It is understood that conversations are ongoing between the BSR and the government’s chief construction advisor, architect Thouria Istephan, about how to manage the risk from fire doors. Fire door failure was a major cause of the smoke spread internally at Grenfell Tower.

The government is also understood to be considering the merits of a competent persons scheme – where contractors are approved as capable of completing the work, rather than individual jobs needing to be approved.

While the installation of fibre-optic cables is regular and routine, it can engage serious fire safety issues. If holes are drilled through compartment walls which are not properly secured, it can provide a medium for the spread of smoke into communal areas or flats where residents will expect to be safe by staying put during a fire.

The announcement comes as the BSR completes its move from within the Health and Safety Executive to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, where it will sit as an arm’s-length body.