Understanding the daylight requirements in North West Leicestershire matters for anyone proposing a house extension, an infill dwelling or a larger residential scheme in the district, whether in Coalville, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington, Measham, Ibstock or one of the National Forest villages. North West Leicestershire District Council is the local planning authority (LPA) that determines these applications; Leicestershire County Council is the upper-tier authority but is not the body that decides most householder and residential proposals. This guide explains how daylight, sunlight and amenity are weighed locally, which adopted policies apply, and what a recognised assessment involves.
Daylight requirements in North West Leicestershire: the policy framework
The statutory development plan for the area is the North West Leicestershire Local Plan, originally adopted on 21 November 2017 and subsequently amended by a Partial Review adopted on 16 March 2021. The council is also preparing a new Local Plan to take the district forward to 2040, but that emerging plan has not yet been adopted, so the current Local Plan remains the basis for decisions.
Two policies in the adopted plan are central to daylight and sunlight matters: Policy D1 (Design of New Development) and Policy D2 (Amenity). Policy D1 sets the council's design expectations, and at criterion (4) it makes the link to amenity explicit:
"Existing neighbour amenity should be safeguarded in accordance with Local Plan Policy D2."
Policy D1 also requires residential development to perform positively against Building for Life 12, the recognised industry standard for well-designed homes and neighbourhoods, which includes considerations of how new homes sit alongside their neighbours.
Policy D2 and the amenity tests
Policy D2 is where overshadowing and loss of light are addressed directly. It states that proposals should be designed to minimise their impact on the amenity of existing and future residents, and will be supported where:
"They do not have a significant adverse effect on the living conditions of existing and new residents through loss of privacy, excessive overshadowing and overbearing impact."
The supporting text to the amenity chapter (paragraph 6.26) explains why this matters, noting that "noise, odour, light and overlooking are key factors affecting amenity", and that "the scale and massing of development if too large can have an overbearing and dominating impact on surroundings, and in particular on neighbouring properties which adversely affects amenity." In practice, "excessive overshadowing" and "overbearing impact" are exactly the issues that a daylight and sunlight assessment is designed to test objectively.
Design guidance and validation in North West Leicestershire
The council supports its design policies with a Good Design Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), first adopted in 2017 to provide more detail on the place-making and design principles set out in the Local Plan, and which the council has since been updating as part of its wider design-quality work. The Good Design SPD expands on how new development should respond to its context, including the district's distinctive National Forest setting, but the district does not publish a separate, standalone numerical daylight and sunlight SPD.
Where a proposal raises a realistic prospect of harm to a neighbour's daylight or sunlight, or to the living conditions of future occupiers, the practical expectation is that this is demonstrated against the recognised national methodology. That methodology is the Building Research Establishment guidance, BRE BR 209: Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight - A Guide to Good Practice (2022 edition), read alongside the British Standard BS EN 17037 on daylight in buildings. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) supports securing well-designed places and a good standard of amenity for existing and future users, and these national documents are applied through the locally adopted policies above. BR 209 supplies the technical tests that allow the qualitative language of Policies D1 and D2 - "excessive overshadowing", "overbearing impact", loss of light - to be measured rather than argued.
What a daylight and sunlight assessment involves
A BRE-based assessment typically considers two questions: the daylight and sunlight enjoyed by neighbouring properties, and the daylight and sunlight that future occupiers of the proposed development will receive. The principal tests include:
- Vertical Sky Component (VSC) - the amount of skylight reaching the centre of a neighbour's window, with a guideline value of 27%, or no worse than 0.8 times its former value;
- Daylight distribution (no-sky line) - how daylight is spread across the depth of a room;
- Annual Probable Sunlight Hours (APSH) - the sunlight reaching windows with a significant southerly aspect, assessed across the whole year and the winter months;
- Overshadowing of gardens and amenity areas - using the sun-on-ground test at the equinox, relevant to gardens in the district's villages and edge-of-settlement sites.
A clear, BRE-compliant report helps a North West Leicestershire planning officer judge a proposal against Policy D2 and the design requirements of Policy D1. It is particularly useful for two-storey rear and side extensions in Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch where overshadowing of a neighbour's habitable-room windows is a common objection, for infill and backland plots in tighter village settings, and for taller apartment schemes near the town centres. A robust assessment cannot promise consent - no report can - but it gives officers the evidence to reach a sound decision and helps applicants design out problems before submission.
How Fortress Associates can help
Fortress Associates prepares our daylight and sunlight report service to BRE BR 209 (2022) and BS EN 17037 for projects across Coalville, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington and the wider North West Leicestershire district. We work nationwide with a typical 4 to 5 working day turnaround and ask for no advance payment. You can see the full range on our services page or contact us to discuss your site. We also produce Building Regulations drawings where these are needed alongside a planning submission. If your project is in the neighbouring Lincolnshire authorities, see our companion guide to the daylight requirements in Lincoln.
Sources & further reading
- North West Leicestershire District Council - Local Plan 2011-2031
- North West Leicestershire District Council - Good Design SPD
- BRE - BR 209: Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight (2022)
- GOV.UK - National Planning Policy Framework
- Fortress Associates daylight and sunlight reports and our services
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