Couple awarded £500,000 after 17-storey office tower made it hard for them to read in bed

A retired couple who sued developers after a 17-storey £35m office next to their home blocked their light have been given a £500,000 payout.

Stephen and Jennifer Powell complained that the Arbor tower, part of the £2,000,000,000 Bankside Yards development on London’s South Bank ‘substantially’ reduced the natural light getting to their 6th-floor apartment in the designer Bankside Lofts.

Bankside Yards is eventually set to consist of eight towers, some of them set to be 50 storeys high, but Arbor is the first and only building completed so far.

Before the tower was completed, though, developers ran into issues when the Powells and their neighbour Kevin Cooper sued to protect their rights of light.

The lawsuit threatened the £35,000,000 tower with potential demolition – but High Court Justice Fancourt refused an injunction, ruling that £200,000,000 would be wasted if the tower was demolished and rebuilt.

The Justice did find the couple’s flat was ‘substantially’ affected by the natural light being blocked, and ordered the co-developer of the offices, Ludgate House Ltd, to pay the Powells £500,000 in damages, plus £350,000 to Mr Cooper.

The judge said that parts of the two flats had been left with levels of light ‘insufficient for the ordinary use and enjoyment of those rooms.’

‘I also conclude that there will, as a result, be a substantial adverse impact on the ordinary use and enjoyment of those flats,’ he added.

Ludgate House Ltd had fought the claims, insisting that the tower doesn’t block enough light from the neighbouring trio’s £1,000,000-plus flats to give the owners a valid claim.

Lawyers said the couple could solve the issue by turning a light on while reading, adding: ‘The room is a bedroom and any reading in bed would be done with the aid of artificial light.’

The judge awarded damages, saying the loss of light was ‘principal’ to the use and enjoyment of the flats.

He added: ‘The reduced use and enjoyment value may have some impact on the market value.

‘Mr Cooper and Mr Powell both stressed that they did not want money, they wanted their light, so that they could enjoy fully the advantages that their flats offered. Despite the loss of light, the flats remain useable, attractive and valuable, but less enjoyable in terms of their good light.’

The court previously heard the Powells have lived in their 6th-floor flat in the yellow ochre Bankside Lofts building on the south bank of the river for over 20 years, having moved in in 2002. Property finance professional Mr Cooper bought his 7th-floor flat in 2021.

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