Building Safety Act timeline & deadlines

In short: The Building Safety Act 2022 has been switched on in stages, not all at once. The Act received Royal Assent in April 2022; the core duties for existing buildings - registration, the golden thread, safety cases and the new build-control Gateways - landed in October 2023; the Building Safety Regulator became a standalone body on 27 January 2026; and further changes, including the second staircase rule and the Building Safety Levy, arrive through 2026. This guide sets the dates out in order.

2022 - the Act becomes law

• 28 April 2022 - the Building Safety Act 2022 receives Royal Assent.
• April 2022 - shortly before Royal Assent, the compulsory Building Safety Manager role and the separate "building safety charge" are removed from the Bill.
• 28 June 2022 - the leaseholder protections take effect, tied to the qualifying-lease test dated 14 February 2022. See who pays for cladding remediation.

2023 - the duties switch on

• 6 April to 1 October 2023 - the registration window for existing occupied higher-risk buildings. From 1 October 2023, operating an occupied higher-risk building that is not registered with the BSR is a criminal offence.
• 1 October 2023 - the new regime goes live: the Gateway building-control process for higher-risk building work, the golden thread and dutyholder/competence requirements, and the duties on accountable persons to assess risks, prepare a safety case report, engage residents and set up mandatory occurrence reporting.

2024-2025 - the system beds in

• 29 March 2024 - an update to Approved Document B is published, setting the direction for the second staircase requirement in new residential buildings over 18m.
• 2024-2025 - the BSR begins calling occupied buildings forward for building assessment certificates, and works through a large backlog of Gateway 2 applications. Against a statutory target of 12 weeks (new higher-risk buildings) or 8 weeks (work to existing ones), real-world approvals averaged around nine months over this period.

2026 - the reforms of this year

• 27 January 2026 - the Building Safety Regulator becomes a standalone non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, moving out from under the Health and Safety Executive.
• By early 2026 - following reforms, Gateway 2 waiting times for new schemes are reported to have fallen back towards 13 weeks.
• October 2026 - the Building Safety Levy is scheduled to take effect, a charge on new residential development in England to help fund cladding remediation.
• 30 September 2026 - the second staircase requirement becomes mandatory for new building-regulations applications for in-scope residential buildings over 18m.

Why the dates matter

The pattern is that duties for occupied buildings have already been live since October 2023 - registration, the golden thread and the safety case are not future obligations, they apply now. The 2026 dates mostly affect new development (the Levy, the second staircase) and the machinery of the regulator. If you are an accountable person for an occupied building, the risk is assuming there is still time; the deadlines that bind you have largely passed.

How CTS helps

CTS keeps you the right side of these dates - confirming whether your building is in scope, making sure it is registered, and building and maintaining the golden thread and safety case on the CTS BuildSafe platform so that when the regulator calls your building forward, you are ready rather than scrambling.

General information, not legal advice. Reviewed by the CTS building safety team.