In July 2026 the Building Safety Regulator announced that it would take a more proportionate and targeted approach to assessing higher-risk buildings. For anyone responsible for one of those buildings, this is the most practical piece of news of the year so far, so it is worth understanding what actually changed and, more importantly, what did not.
The problem the regulator was solving
The building assessment certificate process began in April 2024. The regulator directs the principal accountable person to apply, the accountable person cannot volunteer, and the assessment is a desk review by a multi-disciplinary team of three documents: the safety case report, the resident engagement strategy, and the mandatory occurrence reporting arrangements. Nearly 2,000 buildings have been directed to apply. There are more than 6,000 principal accountable persons and accountable persons responsible for higher-risk buildings across England.
The trouble was throughput. Assessments were taking around twice as long as first expected, and in 2026 roughly two thirds of applications assessed were being refused. A queue that long, moving that slowly, with that refusal rate, was not sustainable for the regulator or for the buildings waiting in it.
What is actually changing
The regulator set out a more targeted approach. In plain terms, it will focus on the applications already in the system, use risk-based sampling rather than treating every case identically, and give extended timelines to volunteer-run resident management companies who cannot move at the pace of a corporate landlord. It also said it would explore proportionate, fast-track reassessment for buildings whose certificates were previously refused, once the shortfalls are fixed. Updated resources to help duty holders were promised from September 2026.
The headline for a resident-run block is that recognition of the volunteer reality. A board of residents with day jobs will not be held to the same clock as a professional freeholder. That is sensible, and overdue.
What is not changing, and this is the important part
None of the underlying duties have softened. The safety case duty, resident engagement and mandatory occurrence reporting have been legally enforceable since January 2024, and they remain so. A more proportionate assessment process is not a lighter set of obligations. It is the same destination with a more sensible route.
The refusal rate tells you where the risk sits. Certificates are refused when the three documents are thin, out of date, or do not describe the building as it really is. A more targeted regulator is not going to pass a weak safety case; it is going to spend its time where the evidence suggests it should. If anything, that raises the value of getting your documentation right before you are called forward.
What to do now
Do not wait for the direction letter to start. The duties do not begin when the letter arrives, they began in January 2024, and the buildings that sail through assessment are the ones that treated the safety case as a live document rather than a form to fill in at the last minute. Get the safety case report accurate and current. Make sure the resident engagement strategy is real and being followed, not just written. Confirm your mandatory occurrence reporting route works and people know how to use it. And if a previous application was refused, use the coming fast-track route by fixing the specific gaps the regulator identified rather than resubmitting the same file.
Where independent help fits
This is document-heavy, judgement-heavy work, and most accountable persons, especially volunteer boards, do not have anyone whose job it is. An outsourced fire safety function holds the safety case together, keeps it honest, and gets it ready for assessment. Because OmniFire has no works arm and sells none of the specialist surveys, our only interest is in your building being genuinely ready, not in adding work that does not need doing.
If your building is in the queue, or expects to be, and you want an independent view of whether your safety case would stand up, email s.coogan@omnifire.co.uk.