What does the BSR’s building update mean?

by Breaking NewsBuilding ManagementSafety

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has released a building control GW2 update to 1 October 2025.

This update aims to demonstrate initial positive impacts on application processes for new high-rise residential buildings.

New build applications and housing units

BSR is currently progressing 152 live new build applications, representing 33,670 housing units across England.

An additional, 253 live remediation applications are also being processed, covering an estimated 22,304 housing units.

This comes amidst a steady rising pace of decisions, with determinations reaching an all-time high of 209 across all application types during August.

The newly established Innovation Unit (IU), a dedicated centralised resource is now managing 27 new build applications (6,192 housing units).

The IU is already demonstrating progress, with the majority of applications currently meeting or exceeding the 12-week service level agreement (SLA) for processing applications.

Average working days for key milestones are also currently performing better than targets.

An increased volume of cases

A new batching process was also launched during September 2025, acknowledging that the original Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) model was not effective for managing the volume of cases.

This new pilot process scales capacity by bundling applications to specialised engineering services suppliers for accelerated assessment.

The first mixed-category bundle of 26 cases was dispatched on 30 September.

Aside from recent changes, BSR’s priority over the remainder of the year is resolving 91 historic new build applications (which contain around 22,000 new housing units) submitted under the previous model.

BSR’s team is applying a bespoke plan to address individual ‘blockers’ within these cases, projecting the majority of historic cases will be closed by 31 December, with a final three expected to close in January 2026.

Chief Executive Officer, Building Safety Regulator, Charlie Pugsley’s statement

Charlie Pugsley, Chief Executive Officer of the Building Safety Regulator, said: “The regulator has been learning from the last two years, has listened to industry feedback and acted decisively through these substantial operational changes we are piloting, which have shown immediate, positive results.

“We have already seen early success with our Innovation Unit and are now deploying strategic capacity scaling, including the new batching system.

“However, we recognise there are ongoing challenges including national skills shortages and we are committed to use agile problem-solving to work constructively with the wider sector and industry applicants.

“Our focus on further improvements will support the pace of essential construction without compromising the essential safety standards required under the Building Safety Act 2022 to keep people safe in their homes.”

Building Safety Regulator announce October update: Summary

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has released a building control GW2 update to 1 October 2025.

Arizona’s Bush Fire spreads, now largest active fire burning in U.S.

by ActiveAmericas - Featured News

The Bush Fire, which has burned more than 64,500 acres in Tonto National Forest and is 0% contained, is currently the largest active fire in the U.S., according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Centre on Tuesday 16th June.

The wildfire started burning Saturday about 20 miles northeast of Mesa and is believed to have been caused by a vehicle fire, according to a statement from Mark Bernal, incident commander for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

“This fire is burning very heavy,” Tiffany Davila, public affairs officer for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, told The Arizona Republic on Tuesday. “It’s running through dense fuels in the area, some of the reasons behind the smoke that we’re seeing.”

The Bush Fire is also very active at night and is visible from central areas of the state like Fountain Hills and Rio Verde, she said.

More than 400 fire personnel are currently fighting the Bush Fire as hot and dry weather is expected to continue this week in addition to wind up to 30 mph, according to a statement from Bernal.

The wildfire is the largest fire in Arizona this year, but it doesn’t compare to Arizona wildfires in recent years, such as the 2019 Woodbury Fire, which burned 123,800 acres in the Tonto National Forest, or the Yarnell Hill Fire, which only burned 8,400 acres but killed 19 firefighters and destroyed more than 100 structures in 2013.

In 2011, the Wallow Fire, the largest fire in the state’s history, burned more than 500,000 acres in eastern Arizona and led to the evacuation of multiple towns in the White Mountains area.

Though no structures have been damaged or destroyed, multiple communities have been evacuated and the Department of Forestry and Fire Management is ready to provide structure protection for those communities, Davila said.

“It’s hard to compare one fire to another — they’re so diverse,” she said. “It depends on the fuel, the landscape, the conditions, the weather.”

Other fires burning in Arizona are also some of the largest active fires in the country, according to NICC data. The Mangum Fire near the Grand Canyon’s north rim has burned nearly 30,000 acres and the Bighorn Fire in Tucson has burned around 15,000 acres as of Tuesday evening.

This year, more wildfires have occurred in Arizona than in 2019 partly due to more moisture over the last two years and an overgrowth of grass vegetation, said Davila. A combination of hotter temperatures in April, dry conditions and dry grass has also contributed to more fires this year.

“We’re seeing that actively when we have these fires in central Arizona,” she said. “They’re moving very rapidly, they’re spreading very fast and they’re starting quickly.”

States like Arizona and New Mexico are also in fire season, so it’s more likely for these states to have larger fires than some other western states, she added.

“We’re asking the public to please do their part, and pay attention to their surroundings,” Davila said. “We’ve got Stage II Fire restrictions in place, and there’s a reason.”

Stage II fire restrictions prohibit camp fires and any outdoor fire usage on all state-owned and managed lands in Arizona.