Guidance

Annex 1: How the Environment Agency decides on competing proposals

Published 14 November 2025

Applies to England

If there is more than one proposal to abstract the same water, the Environment Agency will decide who to allocate the available water to.

This decision is made so that increasingly limited water resources can be allocated in the best public interest. This cannot happen if applications are decided on in the order the Environment Agency receives them.

To understand what this will mean for your proposal, see the Environment Agency’s guidance on Water abstraction licences: competing proposals.  

1. Environment Agency’s role and aims

The Environment Agency’s role is to make decisions about the best use of water for the benefit of existing and future generations while considering:

• the long-term effects
• their legal requirements

In managing water resources, their policy aims include:

• promoting efficient water use and effective water resource management
• protecting the environment
• working with all abstractors and users of water to ensure that they manage demand and use, and share water in the most efficient way

2. The basis of Environment Agency’s decision making process

The Environment Agency will decide each application on its merits in line with the following principles.

Public benefit

The Environment Agency will grant an abstraction licence to applications which are of greatest public benefit. This includes a comparison with other (actual or potential) proposals of:

• their effects on the local and national environment
• the overall appeal in the public interest

Long-term effects

The Environment Agency will consider the long-term public interest when faced with competing proposals. A decision to approve a particular proposal may have long-term implications for:

• the environment (locally and potentially nationally)
• the allocation of water resources
• the amenity of the local area

Sustainability

The Environment Agency’s overall aim will be to ensure the development of the best sustainable use of directly abstracted water, both now and in the future.

Overall, the Environment Agency uses the available information to decide which of the proposals, if any, is most desirable in the public interest.

3. Factors the Environment Agency will consider

When deciding on whether to license an abstraction proposal, the Environment Agency will do a comparison of factors which are relevant to the proposal. Specific factors may be relevant depending on:

• the characteristics of the site
• the characteristics of each proposal
• all the other circumstances of the case

Other factors may be relevant and may be of equal or greater importance depending on the circumstances.

Impact on the environment and other water users

Questions the Environment Agency will ask:

Is the proposal consistent with achieving the environmental requirements in the River basin management plans: updated 2022 for the related water bodies? This includes:

• achieving good ecological status
• achieving potential or good groundwater quantitative status
• preventing deterioration in status

Is the proposal consistent with achieving the conservation objectives for sites designated under The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Sites of Special Scientific Interest – SSSIs)?

Will the proposal have any other impacts on environmental receptors? For example:

• compliance with the environmental flow indicator which is the flow believed to support good ecological status or other local flow constraint, or the groundwater quantitative status test and the groundwater resource available for licensing
• the quantity of water to be abstracted and proximity of any return
• temporal and spatial impacts on the environment
• hydromorphology
• fish screening, spawning and passage (where appropriate)
• water quality in terms of any discharge arising from each proposal and the consequences for effluent dilution (point and diffuse sources)

Can the proposal reduce any of these environmental impacts?

Will the proposal cause weakening of ‘protected rights’ or have a negative impact on other lawful uses of water? If so, can the applicant mitigate these impacts?

Justification of need and water efficiency

Questions the Environment Agency will ask:

How has the proposal justified its need for the water and optimised output from the water requested? For example:

• For irrigation, is the area of land the proposal will irrigate, water usage and optimisation of yields in line with Environment Agency’s guidance Optimum use of water for industry and agricultural dependent on direct abstraction or equivalent guidance?
• For public water supply, is the proposal a preferred option in the water undertaker’s statutory water resources management plan (WRMP)? The Environment Agency must consider the duties imposed on the water industry.
• Is the proposal consistent with the regional water resources plan?
• Is the proposal being carried out by or on behalf of a water abstractor group?

How does the proposal make efficient use of the available water? For example, is there evidence of how the applicant has considered water efficiency through water audits or implementing the water efficiency hierarchy, or both?

Socio-economic value of the proposal

The value of the proposal could be monetary or non-monetary, for example amenity or for environmental benefit.

The Environment Agency will ask:  

• Is there a socio-economic need for a product or service associated with the proposal?
• Is the market or requirement already adequately serviced by others?
• Is the proposal for ‘new water’ or for the renewal of an existing time limited abstraction licence or variation? The Environment Agency will consider that existing abstraction licence holders seeking renewal may have invested in their businesses and already have infrastructure in place.
• Is the proposal to service existing contracts, new agreed contracts or is it of a more speculative nature?
• Is the proposal for public water supply?
• What is the benefit to the social and economic wellbeing of rural communities?
• How does the proposal support economic growth and employment?
• Is there local support or opposition to the proposal?

Wider considerations

The Environment Agency will ask:

• Is the proposal consistent with government policy, objectives and strategies?
• Does the proposal relate to a nationally significant infrastructure project?
• Does the proposal have overriding public interest?
• Is the proposal needed to meet environmental requirements such as providing fish passage?
• Is the proposal part of a wider package of sustainability changes?
• Is the proposal enhancing ecosystem services for environmental benefit (natural capital)?
• Is the proposal consistent with government guidance on sustainable development? See Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Will the proposal lead to any environment net gain, including biodiversity net gain?
• Does the proposal have any negative or positive impacts on flood risk?

Carbon footprint and climate change

The Environment Agency will ask:

• What is the carbon footprint of the proposed abstraction and related infrastructure, both in construction and over its operational lifetime?
• Is the proposal consistent with meeting government targets for net zero by 2050?

• Will the proposal lead to a carbon saving elsewhere?

• Will the proposal be impacted by climate change and how has the applicant or potential applicant mitigated any such impacts?