Daylight and Sunlight Assessments in Ealing

Ealing has two quite different housing stocks and they produce two quite different daylight questions. The Edwardian and Victorian streets of Ealing, Acton, Hanwell and West Ealing are close-packed terraces and semis, where a rear ground-floor extension or a side-return infill sits a few metres from the neighbour's kitchen and dining windows. Perivale, Greenford, Northolt and Southall are mostly 1930s semis on long plots, and the long plots are the point: Ealing sees a steady flow of new houses built in back gardens and to the rear of existing homes, with neighbours on three or four sides and gardens as well as windows to protect.

Ealing's officers work from the Core Strategy and Development Management policies and apply the BRE guidance when a scheme adds bulk close to a boundary. For backland houses the daylight report is usually part of the submission pack from day one; for rear extensions it is often the homeowner, or their architect, who wants certainty before applying. The two recent jobs below are one of each. Our main daylight and sunlight assessment page explains what a report contains.

Recent daylight and sunlight assessments in Ealing

Perimeade Road, Perivale: a backland new-build with neighbours on several sides

A new house to the rear of an existing home on Perimeade Road, the classic Perivale backland plot, with neighbouring houses and gardens on several sides. The planning submission was waiting on the daylight and sunlight report. We modelled the proposed house from the architects' own geometry and the surroundings from mapping and photographs. Every relevant neighbouring window met the BRE guidelines for Vertical Sky Component, daylight distribution and Annual Probable Sunlight Hours, and the neighbouring gardens met the sun-on-ground guideline. The application is now being submitted with the report.

Meadvale Road, Ealing, W5: a rear extension assessed without troubling the neighbours

The owners of a semi-detached house on Meadvale Road were planning a rear ground-floor extension and wanted a BRE report before submitting. Their main worry was whether we would need access to the neighbour's house. We did not: the model was built from the architect's drawings, digital mapping and the owners' photographs of the rear elevations, which give the window positions, sizes and room depths the tests need. All the BRE tests for the neighbouring windows met the guidelines, and the report was issued ahead of the application.

What Ealing planning officers look for

Ealing's adopted development plan currently comprises the Core Strategy (adopted April 2012) and the Development Management DPD (adopted December 2013). The Development Management DPD sets out the detailed policies on the design, massing and effect of development on neighbouring properties, and protecting the amenity of existing and future residents, including their access to adequate natural light, is central to how they are applied. Officers apply the BRE guidance BR 209: Site layout planning for daylight and sunlight (2022 edition).

Ealing has been preparing a new Local Plan for 2024 to 2039, which was submitted for independent examination in November 2024 and will replace the existing documents once adopted. You can find the current development plan at ealing.gov.uk/development_plan and the new Local Plan's progress at ealing.gov.uk/new_local_plan. In practice the daylight tests do not change between the old plan and the new one, because both rely on the BRE guidance; what changes is the policy wording the officer quotes in the report.

For backland houses in particular, Ealing officers expect to see the gardens tested as well as the windows, and they expect the model to show the existing outbuildings, fences and trees honestly, since those often do more to shade a neighbour's garden than the new house will.

When you need an assessment in Ealing

• New houses on backland and garden plots in Perivale, Greenford, Northolt and Hanwell, with neighbouring windows and gardens on several sides
• Rear ground-floor extensions and side-return infills on the Edwardian terraces and semis of Ealing, West Ealing and Acton, where the neighbour's rear windows are close
• Two-storey side extensions to the 1930s semis of Greenford, Northolt and Perivale that bring a flank wall closer to a neighbour's rear windows
• Conversions of houses into flats in Southall, Acton and Hanwell, where the council will want the new rooms tested as well as the neighbours
• Flatted schemes around Ealing Broadway, Acton Town, Southall and the Park Royal and Old Oak edge of the borough, which need a full internal and neighbour study
• Any application where a neighbour has raised loss of light and the case officer has asked for evidence

How we work

We build a 3D model of your scheme and its surroundings from your drawings, mapping data and photographs, or import your architect's IFC or SketchUp model directly, and run the BRE tests on every neighbouring window and garden that could be affected. There is no need to enter the neighbouring property. The fee is fixed and agreed up front, and the report usually takes 4–5 working days from final drawings. The four tests are:

• Vertical Sky Component (VSC): how much sky a neighbouring window can see
• No-Sky Line (NSL), or daylight distribution: how far daylight reaches into the room
• Annual Probable Sunlight Hours (APSH): annual and winter sunlight to windows within 90 degrees of south
• Sun on ground: whether at least half of a garden still gets two hours of sun on 21 March

Our VSC, NSL and APSH page explains each test and our BRE guidelines page sets out the thresholds.

Frequently asked questions in Ealing

Does Ealing expect a daylight report with a backland house application in Perivale or Greenford?

In our experience, yes. With neighbours on three or four sides and gardens in play, officers will ask for one if it is not already in the pack, and submitting it at the start avoids a delay mid-application. On Perimeade Road the architects held the submission until the report was ready for exactly that reason.

Will you need access to my neighbour's house?

No. Window positions and sizes come from the street and rear elevations, mapping data and photographs, and room depths are taken from the building type, the council's planning records or the neighbour's own past applications. The Meadvale Road report was produced without anyone contacting the neighbours.

Which Ealing policy will the officer quote now that a new Local Plan is coming?

Until the new plan is adopted, the Development Management DPD policies on amenity. We write the report so that it works under either, because the BRE tests are the same and it is the tests the officer relies on.

Get a fixed-fee quote

Send your drawings through our contact page or get an instant figure from the price calculator. Call Nick on 01962 809155 or email nick@sunlightassessments.co.uk. For sites on the Hounslow side of the border around Chiswick and Brentford, see our Hounslow page.