Form

How to apply for a local water resources options screening study

Updated 25 May 2026

Applies to England

You can apply for a screening study with the Environment Agency to assess and rank local water resources options to increase your water supply resilience as part of a group of neighbouring farmers. The Environment Agency also welcomes applications from mixed groups of businesses.

1. Who can apply

You can apply for a screening study if you:

• are a group of 2 or more neighbouring farms (larger farm groups or those that are widely dispersed may be separated into smaller screening study groups)
• manage or operate arable, horticultural, aquaculture, paludiculture or livestock farms, including ornamentals or forestry nurseries
• are a farm group that also includes local non-agricultural businesses, who may contribute to potential options
• currently use, or would like to use, water for irrigation or livestock husbandry located in England

The businesses in your group must either:

• own the land
• have a tenancy agreement with the landowner

You can apply without being a member of a Water Abstractor Group (WAG), farming facilitation group or similar. You should consider joining or starting a group in your area to improve your water resilience.

You cannot apply with joint businesses or partnerships in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

If you’ve been involved in a local resource options (LRO) screening study previously, you are still eligible for this round. However, priority will be given to farms that have not previously participated in the LRO programme.

2. What a screening study will do

The screening study will look at potential local water resources options for your group to improve your water resource resilience.

It will screen and rank these options based on:

• hydrology
• cost
• yield
• suitability for required water use

The study will be specific to the group and give location-specific advice. It will provide a report with outline requirements for the best options, including:

• guidance and next steps for implementation
• potential barriers to progression

3. What a screening study will not do

A screening study will not:

• affect the likelihood of acceptance of any permit, abstraction licence or planning applications due to your involvement in a study
• reduce or remove requirements for any abstraction licence applications or planning permissions required to develop and implement the local water resources options
• provide legal agreements for setting up a water sharing company between members of the group
• design engineering specifications for the local water resources options
• carry forward any of the options or provide funding for their implementation – it will only provide a report outlining the options in detail

Taking part in a screening study will not affect any current abstraction or impounding licences you hold. You are not required to implement all or any of the recommendations in the LRO report.

4. When to apply

Applications open on 25 May 2026 and close at 23:59pm on 5 July 2026.

5. How to apply

You will need to appoint a lead contact who will apply on behalf of the group. The lead contact should collate all information for all the participants in the study group before applying.

The lead contact will need to answer questions about:

• the participant businesses’ names, addresses, contact information, and details about the size and nature of their farming or other business activities
• the water abstraction licences or discharge permits (or both) held by the participants, their licence numbers and what the water is being used for, for example, irrigation for crop production, fish farming (aquaculture), supporting livestock
• any issues or concerns the businesses have about the future of their water abstraction licences
• water constraints that the businesses face or have faced in the last few years (for example, recent section 57 spray irrigation restrictions or ‘hands off flow’ conditions)
• any existing water resource resilience measures that the participant group are currently using
• if the farms are part of a formal WAG, farming facilitation group or similar, or if they plan to start a group or join an existing one

You must also provide a detailed land map of your group’s land. This can be either a map for each individual business or one larger map encompassing the entire area. If you do not already have a map, Land App and Google Maps are online resources that can assist in creating one.

The information you provide will help the Environment Agency understand the businesses who wish to be involved in the screening study.

Use the application form to apply for a local water resources option screening study.

The lead contact must complete the application form and email it to wragriculture@environment-agency.gov.uk by the application closing date of 23:59pm on 5 July 2025.

6. How the Environment Agency will assess applications

The application process for screening studies is competitive. The Environment Agency will review the information in your application. They will prioritise approving applications from groups that:

• are at risk of sustainability reductions to abstraction licences
• have received a letter from the Environment Agency about potential future licence reductions
• are located near water bodies with poor ecological status
• are in a catchment with either no water or restricted water available for abstraction
• are in a region or agricultural sector that has been underrepresented in the LRO screening study programme to date

Applications will be scored in line with public sector principles of transparency, honesty and fairness.

The Environment Agency aims to give you a decision within 20 working days of the application closing date.

7. If your application is successful

If your group is selected for a screening study, the lead contact will be notified by email. You must reply within one week of receiving this email to confirm that your group – including all the individual participants listed – still wishes to take part.

Once the study begins, your group must respond promptly to any requests for information from the consultants. Failure to do so may result in your group being removed from the study.

A group or individual may be removed from the study if they:

• do not reply to the acceptance email within one week of receiving it
• do not respond to the consultants within the first 2 weeks of the project start date
• fail to provide the requested information within the first month of the study
• fail to engage with consultants during the LRO screening study

At the end of each study, the Environment Agency will ask you to provide feedback on your experience. This is to help them improve future iterations of LRO screening studies.

See the ‘How the study will work’ and ‘How the Environment Agency manages your data’ sections of this guide for more information on:

• use of data
• requirements of the group in relation to site visits and meetings

There will be a waiting period between your application being accepted and the study starting, while the Environment Agency appoints suitable water resources consultants to deliver your study. You will be kept up to date on timings during this process.

8. If your application is unsuccessful

The Environment Agency will write to you and tell you why. If you’re unhappy with the decision, you should follow the Environment Agency’s complaints procedure. 

If additional funding becomes available to the Environment Agency for screening studies, they may revisit your application and write to you at a later date.

9. How the study will work

The Environment Agency will procure and have contractual agreements with water resources consultants to provide each screening study. This is separate to the agreement they will have with your farm group about what is expected from you.

The water resources consultants will arrange to visit the farms and business premises in your application. During these visits, they will ask about your current water needs and use, and future water-related business ambitions.

The consultants will build a conceptual model of the area using:

• summary information about water abstraction licences in your area
• records of recent actual abstraction
• information from the businesses on water use requirements and aims
• publicly available data on the local water bodies, hydrology, hydrogeology, geology and climate
• other relevant information from your local regional water resources group about ongoing or planned projects

The consultants will then screen and rank potential water resources options for your group. These could include:

• farm storage reservoirs (new, resizing or change to multi-season operation)
• water rights trading (where all or part of a licence is temporarily or permanently traded, for example, farm group partners form a company under which some or all water rights are held, perhaps in a single licence)
• water sharing (for example, the licence holder retains their licence, but shares water with another)
• water efficiency tools
• demand and leakage reduction
• improve connectivity of existing sources
• water recycling
• drainage water use
• managed aquifer recharge
• rainwater harvesting
• conjunctive use schemes (for example, a mix of groundwater and surface water)

The water resources consultants will involve you in this process. You will be expected to attend 2 or 3 group meetings to discuss and give feedback on the options before the consultants finalise and send you your LRO report.

10. How the Environment Agency manages your data

See the Environment Agency’s personal information charter to find out how the Environment Agency treats your personal information and what details are held.

The Environment Agency will share information on your abstraction and impoundment licences with the water resources consultants for use in the studies. This will be under a data licence which will define:

• how they can use the data
• how data is to be stored
• for how long data can be retained before they are required to destroy it

The data that you provide to the water resources consultants will be used during your screening study and may appear in the LRO report.

The LRO report is confidential and we will only share it with your study group and a limited number of relevant stakeholders, including your regional water resources group to support regional water resources planning. It will not be shared publicly. All participants will receive the same report, which may include personal data contained within your original application form about other participants within the study.

While the study is ongoing, the Environment Agency, your regional water resources group and the Water for Food Group may review the draft outputs.

The Environment Agency will combine all study outputs to consider trends and common barriers to the development of water resources. They will share the combined outputs, study findings and summary documents with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and potentially any relevant ministers. This will provide evidence for policy and regulatory change to help improve the long-term resilience of water supplies for agriculture. Summary reporting will be published on the Environment Agency’s website.

The Environment Agency may develop a high-level case study based on your screening study to help promote the programme and share its outcomes. The case study will not include any personal data and will be shared with you for comment before publication. If the Environment Agency does not receive feedback within the given timeframe, they will assume you are happy for it to be published.