A new BRE and RICS daylight and sunlight standard is on the way. The two bodies are jointly preparing a second edition of their daylight guidance, expected around the end of 2026, and it will eventually sit alongside — or in time replace — the current advice that planning authorities rely on. If you are designing a scheme now, the headline is simple: nothing has changed yet, but the direction of travel matters for anything that will be assessed in 2027 and beyond.
This article explains what the second-edition daylight standard is, why BRE and RICS are updating it, what is likely to shift, and which documents you should still be working to today.
What is the new BRE daylight standard?
The current benchmark for assessing daylight and sunlight in UK planning is BRE BR 209, Site layout planning for daylight and sunlight: a guide to good practice, in its 2022 (third) edition. It superseded the long-serving 2011 version and brought the guidance into line with the British Standard, BS EN 17037. Separately, RICS publishes its own professional standard on daylighting and sunlighting, which surveyors follow when advising on schemes and neighbour impacts.
BRE and RICS are now working together on a second-edition daylight standard. It is expected to be published around the end of 2026. Until then, BR 209 (2022) remains the guidance in current use, and RICS members are advised to apply BR 209 (2022) alongside the existing edition of the RICS daylighting and sunlighting standard.
Why update the guidance again?
The pressure driving the update is the same one shaping most of UK housing policy: density. As towns and cities intensify — taller buildings, tighter plots, more back-land and infill development — the classic BRE numerical targets become harder to meet, and rigidly applying them can block otherwise well-designed homes. The 2022 edition already acknowledged this by leaning on BS EN 17037 and by allowing context-based alternative targets in dense urban areas (the approach set out in BR 209 Appendix F, which we cover in our guide to setting alternative daylight targets in cities).
A second edition is an opportunity to go further: to clarify how assessors should choose and justify targets in genuinely constrained locations, to tie the guidance more closely to the illuminance-based provision tests in the British Standard, and to reduce the inconsistency that applicants often meet when different consultants and councils interpret the same rules differently.
What is likely to change?
BRE and RICS have not published the draft, so the honest answer is that the detail is not yet fixed. It would be wrong to quote specific new thresholds that do not yet exist. That said, the shape of recent guidance points to a few reasonable expectations:
- Closer alignment with BS EN 17037. Expect the internal daylight provision tests — target illuminance across a proportion of the room for a proportion of daylight hours — to be reinforced as the primary way of judging whether a room is well lit, working alongside the familiar Vertical Sky Component and No-Sky Line checks. Our explainer on the BRE 2022 provision tests sets out how these work today.
- Clearer rules for dense contexts. More structured guidance on when and how to depart from the default suburban targets, so that context-based assessment is a defensible method rather than an argument to be had on every application.
- A single, less contradictory framework. BRE and RICS producing the guidance jointly should reduce the friction between the planning-amenity assessment and the surveyor's professional standard.
What will not change is the distinction between planning daylight and the private legal right to light. Those remain two separate frameworks, as we explain in right to light vs daylight report — a new BRE standard governs planning amenity, not a neighbour's easement.
What applies to your scheme today?
For any application being prepared or assessed now, the position is unchanged:
- BR 209 (2022) is the current BRE guidance — VSC, No-Sky Line, Annual Probable Sunlight Hours and the BS EN 17037 provision tests. See our comparison of the two daylight standards in one report.
- BS EN 17037 supplies the internal daylight, sunlight, view and glare recommendations.
- The relevant national framework and local plan set the policy hook — in England the NPPF and the council's amenity policies; different frameworks apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
If your scheme is progressing this year, assess it against BR 209 (2022). If it will be determined in 2027, keep an eye on the second edition and build in enough design headroom that a modest tightening of the guidance would not undermine your case.
How to future-proof a design now
The safest response to an incoming standard is not to guess at its numbers but to design generously against the current ones. Prioritise room depth and glazing that comfortably clear today's VSC and provision-test targets; avoid single-aspect, north-facing habitable rooms wherever the layout allows (a recurring failure point we describe in single-aspect flats and daylight); and get a daylight consultant involved at massing stage rather than after the layout is fixed. Schemes with margin to spare against BR 209 (2022) are the ones least likely to be caught out by a second edition.
How Fortress Associates can help
Fortress Associates produces daylight and sunlight reports to BRE BR 209 (2022) and BS EN 17037 for planning applications across the UK. We assess VSC, No-Sky Line, APSH and the internal provision tests, flag amenity risks early, and set out clear mitigation where targets are tight. Reports are typically ready in 4–5 working days with no advance payment. If you would like your scheme reviewed against the current guidance — and stress-tested for the changes ahead — get in touch or see our full range of planning services.
Sources & further reading
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