The head of the Building Safety Regulator, Philip White, will step down in September.
White has held the role for around two years, having replaced the first BSR chief, Peter Baker, who retired shortly after the Regulator began its high-rise buildings approval process in April 2023.
The Health and Safety Executive has described the move as a partial retirement, which is believed to have been announced internally in March but only made public knowledge today.
White will continue in his role as the chief inspector of buildings for the HSE but step down as the director of building safety. The HSE said that it will now begin looking for White’s successor.
White’s decision to retire comes amid growing criticism of the BSR due to the delays in approving the construction of schemes taller than 18 metres.
New data published by cost consultant, Cast, has found that just one in ten applications have been approved at gateway 2, with just 20 out of 187 applications given the green light.
Since October 2023, when the gateway checks were introduced, to the end of May 2025, a further 18 applications had been rejected, meaning 149 applications were still awaiting a decision.
The HSE said that Philip White had made the “personal decision that it was time for him to reduce his working hours and therefore step down as director of building safety after having led BSR through a pivotal couple of years.”
It continued: “Mr White’s decision to only partially retire means that the BSR will continue to benefit from his extensive experience as it enters its second year of operation, and the government has set out how it intends to respond to the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations.”
