Understanding the daylight requirements in Fife Council is essential for anyone proposing a house extension, an infill dwelling or a larger residential scheme across the Kingdom of Fife, from the historic abbey town of Dunfermline and the waterfront at Kirkcaldy to the university town of St Andrews and the communities beside the Forth bridges. Fife Council is the unitary local planning authority for the whole area, so a single authority sets the policies that determine householder and residential applications. Because Fife is in Scotland, daylight and sunlight are considered within the Scottish planning framework rather than the policies that apply in England. This guide explains how that framework works locally and what an assessment to recognised standards involves.
Daylight requirements in Fife: the policy framework
The starting point is the adopted local development plan, FIFEplan, which was adopted on 21 September 2017. FIFEplan sets out the policies Fife Council uses to determine planning applications across the area, and two of its policies are directly relevant to daylight and sunlight.
The most explicit is Policy 10: Amenity, which requires development to protect the amenity of existing and future occupiers and specifically refers to avoiding unacceptable loss of privacy, sunlight and daylight. That wording is unusually direct, naming daylight and sunlight as distinct amenity considerations in their own right. Supporting it, Policy 1: Development Principles sets the broader design and place-making expectations - scale, massing, layout and relationship to neighbours - that shape whether a proposal will overshadow or feel overbearing to those nearby.
At the national level, Fife's policies sit beneath National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), Scotland's national planning policy. NPF4 Policy 14 (Design, quality and place) and Policy 16 (Quality homes) require new development to be well designed and to provide good-quality living environments, which includes adequate access to daylight and sunlight. NPF4 is part of the statutory development plan in Scotland, so it is read together with FIFEplan when an application is decided.
Supplementary guidance in Fife
Fife Council backs its plan policies with detailed guidance. Making Fife's Places Supplementary Guidance (2018) sets out design expectations for new development, including the spacing and orientation of buildings that influence daylight and sunlight outcomes. More recently, the council adopted its own Daylight and Sunlight Guidance on 13 March 2024, which is the single most useful document for anyone assessing a Fife scheme, because it explains precisely how the council expects daylight and sunlight impacts to be tested.
Fife's sequential 45-degree, 25-degree and VSC approach
The 2024 guidance sets out a clear sequential, staged assessment that becomes more detailed as a proposal moves closer to its neighbours:
- First, the 45-degree test is applied on plan and in elevation from a neighbour's habitable-room window. If the development sits outside the 45-degree line, it will generally be acceptable in daylight terms and no further analysis is required.
- If the 45-degree test is not met, a 25-degree test (a vertical angle measured from the centre of the lowest affected window) is applied to check whether enough sky remains visible to the window.
- If the 25-degree test is also not met, a full Vertical Sky Component (VSC) analysis is required, following the detailed methodology of the BRE guide.
This staged approach is helpful because it lets straightforward, well-spaced proposals pass quickly while reserving full numerical analysis for the cases that genuinely need it. Crucially, Fife's guidance is built on the recognised national methodology: the Building Research Establishment guide, "Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight - A Guide to Good Practice" (3rd edition, 2022), often referred to as BR 209. That guide provides the VSC and sunlight tests at the heart of the sequential process.
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. Working through Fife's sequence, the principal tests include:
- The 45-degree and 25-degree screening tests from the 2024 guidance, used to establish whether detailed analysis is needed;
- 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 on the equinox.
A clear assessment that follows Fife's sequential method helps a planning officer judge a proposal against Policy 10 of FIFEplan and the relevant NPF4 policies. It is particularly valuable for two-storey rear and side extensions in Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, sensitive infill in the conservation areas of St Andrews, and any scheme where the 45-degree and 25-degree tests are not met and a full VSC study becomes necessary. A robust assessment cannot promise consent, 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 following the BRE 3rd edition (2022) guidance and Fife's own sequential method for projects across Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes, St Andrews and the wider Fife area. 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. For a comparable authority, see our guide to daylight requirements in Tandridge.
Sources & further reading
- Fife Council - Planning policy (FIFEplan, supplementary guidance and Daylight and Sunlight Guidance 2024)
- BRE - Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight (3rd edition, 2022)
- Scottish Government - National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4)
- Fortress Associates daylight and sunlight reports
- Our services and our guide to getting in touch
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