Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance the Environment Agency provides to local planning authorities on assessing the cumulative impact of development on surface water flood risk and drainage capacity in low-lying coastal areas.

Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) are the lead authority for managing surface water flooding. LLFAs are statutory consultees on major development, providing expert advice to local planning authorities. The Environment Agency (EA) has a strategic overview for all sources of flooding.

In December 2024 the EA published its updated National Assessment of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk in England. This included an updated assessment of surface water flood risk.

The EA also supports consideration of surface water flood risk in decision making for new developments through the Flood Map for Planning and Check your long term flood risk services.

The EA is supporting implementation of the Government’s new flood and coastal erosion risk management funding policy, which made several improvements to aid investment in managing surface water flooding. The EA has produced guidance explaining how the new policy will work in practice.