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The Government appears to have responded to recent concerns over the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) approval processes, which are known to have been causing delays and increased costs for broadband and mobile operators trying to deploy new digital infrastructure into large buildings (MDUs etc.). But a new consultation is proposing changes that may address some of the issues.
Just to recap. The cross-party House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee recently highlighted how delays in the BSR’s updated processes for minor works had been, among other things, causing problems for network operators and pushing up costs, often unpredictably (here). In short, putting a lot of red tape in front of even fairly routine work and thus slowing network deployments down (the government describes this as an “unintended consequence” of earlier changes in 2023).
The government today appears to have responded to that, at least in part, by launching a new consultation on ‘Improving proportionality and safety outcomes in building control‘ for “telecommunications work“, which specifically aims to introduce changes to the processes for the “installation of fibre optic cabling” (fixed broadband) and “building work related to mobile masts“.
The key proposal is to “dispense with procedural requirements of building regulations” for certain types of work on existing buildings, such as work related to “the drilling of holes through internal fire-resisting walls for fibre optic cabling and work related to the installation and repair of mobile communications masts“.
The consultation finds that the current rules for these areas of work “may be unreasonable and disproportionate“, which is said to be taking direct regulatory resources away from the types of building work that carry higher risk (e.g. new builds and remediation projects).
Summary of the Proposals
This consultation seeks views on proposals to streamline the building control procedural requirements for the following types of building work within the higher-risk building regime: fibre optic cabling and mobile masts.
In the case of building work to fibre optic infrastructure, the consultation also seeks views on building control approval routes for non-higher-risk buildings.
These proposals aim to ensure that regulatory processes remain proportionate, effective, and focused on maintaining building safety.
Specifically, the consultation considers proposals to dispense with procedural requirements of building regulations for the following types of building work to existing buildings: building work related to the drilling of holes through internal fire-resisting walls for fibre optic cabling and work related to the installation and repair of mobile communications masts.
For these activities, the current building control procedural requirements may be unreasonable and disproportionate and can direct regulatory resources away from the types of building work that carry higher risk, such as new builds and remediation projects.
The proposed changes would streamline procedural steps at building control approval, construction or completion certificate stage for these defined works, while retaining safeguards where they matter most. For all the proposed changes, dutyholders, defined as individuals or organisations that are assigned specific responsibilities at particular phases of the building life cycle, would still be required to ensure that building work complies with technical/functional requirements of the Building Regulations 2010.
The consultation invites evidence and views on these proposals, with detailed reasoning provided in the referenced sections.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) states that their consultation will be open for feedback until 11:59pm on 24th March 2026. The changes, if adopted, do not appear to require any changes in existing legislation (so far as we can tell) and so could be introduced fairly swiftly into the existing process. At present, this only affects England.