Daylight requirements in Westmorland and Furness are something of a patchwork, and for good reason. Westmorland and Furness Council was created as a new unitary authority on 1 April 2023, bringing together the former districts of Barrow-in-Furness, Eden and South Lakeland (covering Kendal, Penrith, Ulverston and the surrounding towns). Until a single new Local Plan is adopted, the council determines planning applications using the legacy Local Plans inherited from those former district councils. For applicants seeking to extend a home or build new dwellings in Kendal, Barrow or Penrith, understanding which plan applies, and what it says about light and amenity, is the essential first step.
Which Local Plan applies in Westmorland and Furness?
Because Westmorland and Furness is a new authority, there is currently no single adopted Local Plan covering the whole area. The council has begun work on a new Westmorland and Furness Local Plan, but at the time of writing it remains at an early stage. In the meantime, the relevant adopted documents are the legacy plans of the former councils:
- South Lakeland Core Strategy (adopted October 2010) and Development Management Policies DPD (adopted March 2019) for the Kendal, Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands area;
- Barrow Borough Local Plan 2016–2031 (adopted 4 June 2019) for Barrow-in-Furness, Dalton and Walney;
- Eden Local Plan 2014–2032 (adopted March 2018) for Penrith, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen and the surrounding rural area.
One important point of geography: the Lake District National Park (and part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park) is a separate planning authority. If your property sits inside a National Park boundary, the National Park Authority — not Westmorland and Furness Council — determines your application under its own development plan. Always confirm which authority covers your site before proceeding.
What the adopted policies say about amenity and light
None of the legacy plans set out a numerical daylight or sunlight standard in their policy text. Instead, they rely on broadly worded design and amenity policies that require development to protect the living conditions of neighbours, including their access to light. The key references are:
South Lakeland
Core Strategy Policy CS8.10 (Design) requires development to be of high quality design that respects the character of its surroundings and the amenity of neighbouring occupiers. The 2019 Development Management Policies DPD then provides the detailed development management criteria used to assess applications, including the protection of residential amenity, privacy and outlook for existing and future occupiers.
Barrow-in-Furness
The Barrow Borough Local Plan 2016–2031 contains Policy DS5 (Design), which expects new development to achieve good design and to avoid unacceptable harm to the amenity of neighbouring uses. Notably, the plan also retains a specific Policy H16 (Loss of Sunlight), which directly addresses the impact of new building on the sunlight enjoyed by adjoining residential properties — a relatively explicit recognition of light as a material consideration.
Eden
The Eden Local Plan 2014–2032 carries design and amenity policies requiring development to respect local character and to protect the amenity of neighbouring occupiers from overbearing, overshadowing or loss-of-light impacts.
Because these policies are qualitative rather than numerical, planning officers turn to recognised national technical guidance to judge whether an impact is acceptable. That is where the BRE methodology becomes central.
How daylight requirements in Westmorland and Furness are assessed in practice
Where a policy refers to protecting amenity or sunlight without defining a figure, the established practice across England — and in Westmorland and Furness — is to apply the Building Research Establishment guidance. The relevant documents are:
- BRE BR 209 (2022), Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight: A Guide to Good Practice, which sets the well-known tests — the Vertical Sky Component (VSC) and the 0.8 retained-ratio rule for daylight to neighbouring windows, the Annual Probable Sunlight Hours (APSH) test for sunlight, and the 45-degree and 25-degree guidelines for assessing impact;
- BS EN 17037, the British and European standard on Daylight in Buildings, used increasingly to assess internal daylight provision in new homes;
- the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which directs that planning should secure a high standard of amenity for existing and future occupiers while making efficient use of land.
Crucially, Westmorland and Furness Council's Local Validation Checklist (July 2023) lists a Sunlight and Daylight Assessment as a local information requirement. Where a proposal could materially affect the daylight or sunlight reaching neighbouring properties — for example a two-storey rear extension close to a boundary, or an infill development in a tight urban plot in Barrow or Kendal — the council can require a BRE-based assessment before the application is validated. Submitting a competent report up front avoids the application being held invalid and the delays that follow.
The council is also preparing a borough-wide Design Code, intended to be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document and to provide more detailed design guidance across the Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland areas. Until that is in force, the legacy plan policies and BRE guidance remain the operative framework.
Common situations where a daylight and sunlight report helps
- Householder extensions in the terraced streets of Barrow or the older parts of Kendal, where buildings sit close together and the 45-degree guideline is easily breached;
- Backland and infill plots in Penrith and Ulverston, where a new dwelling must be tested against neighbouring windows and gardens;
- Apartment and conversion schemes, where internal daylight to proposed habitable rooms must be demonstrated against BS EN 17037;
- Responding to objections, where a neighbour or the case officer has raised loss of light as a concern and an objective BRE assessment can resolve the question.
How Fortress Associates can help
Fortress Associates prepares daylight and sunlight reports to BRE BR 209 (2022), BS EN 17037 and the NPPF, written to support applications determined under the relevant Westmorland and Furness legacy Local Plan. Find out more about our daylight and sunlight report service, or read about the full range of work on our services page. We work nationwide with a 4–5 working day turnaround and no advance payment required. To discuss your site, please contact us.
If your project sits in a neighbouring authority, you may also find our guide to daylight requirements in Wiltshire useful for comparison.
Sources & further reading
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