Flood risk assessments: applying for planning permission

Publication Year

2025

Document Status

Current

Abstract

Provides advice on when a flood risk assessment should be carried out as part of a planning application, detailing how to complete an assessment and how the assessment is processed. Covers: when a flood risk assessment is needed; when a sustainable drainage strategy is needed and what should be included; researching the development site; accessing the right advice; getting information about flood risk from rivers and the sea to assist in completing a flood risk assessment; choosing the correct product; and contacting the Environment Agency.

Document History

Last updated: 10 April 2025 - Amended to signpost to new guidance on how to use the flood risk datasets shown on the flood map for planning. Provided additional guidance to ensure Flood Risk Authorities appraise the suitability of flood risk datasets before use and understand the limitations of existing models. Sourced from: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/flood-risk-assessment-for-planning-applications and converted to pdf. Whilst we endeavour to capture all updates it is subject to receiving alerts from the publisher and there may be formatting or punctuation changes applied to the html version that do not affect the text. Document type: guidance. First published: 26 March 2014.

Publisher Information