New Rules for Speeding Up Certain Broadband Installs is Causing Delays

The government’s new changes to the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) approval processes in England (here) are causing additional delays to some of Openreach’s new broadband installs. Ironically the changes are being introduced to correct for the delays and increased costs of telecoms operators trying to deploy new networks into large buildings (MDUs etc.) under the prior system.

Last year plenty of problems were caused after the BSR updated their processes for minor works, which among other things caused problems for network operators that pushed 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.

The good news is that an agreement was reached in July 2026, which saw the Ministry of Housing (MHCLG) set out special dispensation – lasting for the next 3 years – to cover related areas of work (e.g. drilling small holes to run new fibre and placing mobile masts on rooftops etc.) when deploying new digital infrastructure into such buildings.

The dispensations are due to come into effect on 1st September 2026. But industry feedback seen by ISPreview suggests that some “additional consent and assurance requirements” in the new process may ironically also be causing delays with some new broadband installs. A number of Openreach’s related installs already appear to have been impacted (e.g. installs due within the next few days have been put back by weeks).

The hope is that this is just a transitional delay due to the new admin involved (process changes etc.), which may well iron itself out once everything and everyone has fully adapted to it. At this stage it’s also difficult to know if this is impacting all such installs across relevant buildings (e.g. MDUs) in England or only a subset. We’ve queried with Openreach and will update once they respond, although the bank holiday weekend may get in the way.