Find out about flood risks, if you need an assessment and how they can affect your planning application.
Major changes to the planning system in England have brought about important changes in the way we deal with development and flood risk.
These include:
- the Environment Agency has been made a statutory consultee in relation to planning applications where there is a risk of flooding. They provide Flood Risk Standing Advice for those applying for planning permission and information on Flood Risk Assessment
- a new Flooding Direction has been introduced. This enables the Secretary of State to determine any 'major' applications where local planning authorities have granted planning permission when the Environment Agency advised against it
Current and future flood risk must be taken into account at all stages of the planning process. This will reduce the amount of new development at risk from flooding or likely to make flooding worse elsewhere.