Delays caused by a bottleneck of safety checks are preventing hundreds of homes from being sold, it is being reported.

Inspections of high-rise buildings introduced after the Grenfell Tower fire mean more than 70 buildings are waiting to be assessed.

Logjam

The Government says it has given the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) more cash to help deal with the logjam of checks, but many flats are still waiting approval, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Wembley Park developer Quintain and student housing company Unite Group are both said to be affected by the delays.

One buyer told the Telegraph he had been waiting since November for his flat purchase in south west London to go through.

It just beggars belief. It’s so frustrating.”

“It just beggars belief. It’s so frustrating,” he said. “There are quite a few high-rise buildings here that have been completed for a while and are still standing empty.”

The buyer’s property is in a block of around 100 flats.

Buildings above 18 metres must now pass three ‘gateway’ inspection, overseen by the BSR.

More cash

A Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government spokesman said the department was aware of the issues, and it had given the BSR £2.1m to help clear the backlog.

The cladding on existing buildings is still a major issue. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner promised to speed up the removal of dangerous cladding from high rise buildings in September.

She was speaking the day after a scathing inquiry report into the Grenfell Tower fire disaster listed a catalogue of failings.

But in March, the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee found residents were still facing a lack of action in resolving the cladding crisis.