In a 2010 landmark ruling the High Court ordered an injunction requiring the demolition of the top two floors of a recently completed office building in Leeds. The reason for the decision in HKRUKII (CHC) Ltd vs Heaney [2010] was that the floors interfered with a right to light enjoyed by a neighbouring property. The implications of the decision for the development industry were grave, effectively enabling the owners of properties near development sites enjoying rights to light to hold developers to ransom. The situation was so serious that the Law Commission launched a consultation which initially included a suggestion that rights to light should be abolished altogether. The final recommendations, published at the beginning of December 2014, exclude some of the more radical suggestions, but if they reach the statute book will represent a significant change to the law.
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