Guidance
Water abstraction licences: competing proposals
How the Environment Agency considers competing proposals to abstract water and what to do if the Environment Agency has said your application is competing with one or more other proposals.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The Environment Agency determines applications for water abstraction licences.
If you need to get a water abstraction licence, the Environment Agency may tell you that other proposals also want to abstract the available water. This guidance explains what you need to do in this situation.
Annex 1 details the Environment Agency’s role in this process and how they decide which proposal or proposals to grant a licence to.
Updates to this page
Published 14 November 2025