‘Light Knights’ EXPAND THEIR CRUSADE

Light Knights, the industry group created to promote best practice in the field of Rights to Light and Daylight & Sunlight Amenity, now has over 300 members on their LinkedIn group and is gaining significant interest among a wide range of professionals serving the building and development sectors.

A Light Knights event held in London on 21 June 2023 marked a year since the Group’s launch featured a ‘(Light)Speed Networking’ event, the findings from which will be shared via the Group’s LinkedIn page over the coming weeks.

Light Knights meet three times a year on or around spring equinox, summer solstice and autumn equinox - key dates in the daylight calendar. These have incorporated a Rights to Light case law session, Daylight & Sunlight analysis workshop and a Rights to Light ‘Ambulance Chasers’ debate.

Dan Tapscott, Light Knights founder and Partner at property consultancy Rapleys, said: “The feedback on all these events has been really positive. We set out to gather people from across the industry and build a community to network, knowledge share and raise standards. So far so good! It’s not just practitioners who attend though. We have solicitors, insurers, software developers, 3D modellers, architects and planners besides academics and even the odd representative from the Law Commission who have come along.”

He continued: “Rights to Light and Daylight & Sunlight have been in the shadows for too long. It was time that the industry came together to exchange ideas, agree best practice principles, and help to support and educate each other, and the next generation of practitioners entering the field. In recent years we have seen a number of issues emerge that have radically affected our market, not least the emergence of new service providers who have engineered an increasingly litigious environment between neighbours –residential and commercial. Clearly those who have genuine concerns have the right of complaint and redress, but mass claims which flood insurers can have a detrimental effect.”

Increased claims mean insurance premiums are rising and this can now often threaten the viability of development. Neighbourhoods clearly benefit from sensible, sustainable development in terms of increased value and this is not considered when lodging a claim based on light access.

This is all to say nothing of the effect of stalling development on our critical need for more housing in the UK.

Dan Tapscott summed up: “What this means in practice is that Rights to Light must be considered early in the development process in tandem with considering Daylight & Sunlight Amenity. Risks should be mapped and mitigated so that any claims that do arise further down the line can be managed effectively. Rights to Light practitioners will, by necessity, be more involved in the early stages of development, and in more depth, armed with the latest innovative technology to assess sites and professional expertise to inform dialogue with neighbours.” www.lightknights.co.uk www.rapleys.com www.linkedin.com/ groups/9162276/

Light Knights is sponsored and supported by property consultancy Rapleys.