Policy paper

Water abstraction plan

Updated 27 July 2021

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

This document sets out how the government will reform water abstraction management over the coming years and how this will protect the environment and improve access to water. It should be read alongside the supplementary documents covering:

• environment
• catchment focus
• abstraction licensing service

1. Summary

Access to water is vital to society and a wide range of people depend on it, from households to farmers and industry. Most businesses taking more than 20,000 litres of water a day directly from rivers or groundwater require an abstraction licence. The current approach to managing abstraction has three main issues:

• some older licences allow abstraction that can damage the environment
• the current approach is not flexible enough to cope with the pressures of increasing demand for water and climate change in the long term, or to allow abstractors access to additional water when it is available
• the abstraction service is outdated and paper-based

Government published a range of approaches to address these issues in January 2016 following formal consultation. This plan explains how these will be implemented over the coming years. Our approach to addressing these issues has three main elements:

• making full use of existing regulatory powers and approaches to address unsustainable abstraction and move around 90% of surface water bodies and 77% of groundwater bodies to the required standards by 2021

• developing a stronger catchment focus – bringing together the Environment Agency, abstractors and catchment groups to develop local solutions to existing pressures and to prepare for the future. These local solutions will:

  • protect the environment by changing licences to better reflect water availability in catchments and reduce the impact of abstraction

  • improve access to water by introducing more flexible conditions that support water storage, water trading and efficient use

• supporting these reforms by modernising the abstraction service, making sure all significant abstraction is regulated and bringing regulations in line with other environmental permitting regimes

We will report to parliament by May 2019 on progress made on abstraction reform.

2. Addressing unsustainable abstraction

We want to end damaging abstraction of water from rivers and groundwater wherever it is cost-effective to do so. Latest data show that 82% of surface water bodies and 72% of groundwater bodies have enough water to protect the environment, for example, providing good support to fish and other aquatic life.

The current position reflects good progress made already, however, more needs to be done to make further improvements and to protect the progress already made.

As well as improving the environment we need to make sure that increases in abstraction do not bring about new pressures. 5% of surface water bodies and 15% of groundwater bodies are at risk from increasing water use by current licence holders that could damage the environment. This risk needs to be managed closely.

The Environment Agency will make full use of its existing powers over the coming years to amend abstraction licences to protect the environment and will prioritise changes to licences having the greatest impact. This work should see around 90% of surface water bodies and 77% of groundwater bodies meet the required standards by 2021. More information on the required standards and planned actions is available in the supplementary document on the environment.

In order to meet these goals the Environment Agency will:

• use the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP), due in March 2018, to make sure that water companies take a leading role in addressing unsustainable abstraction

• review more than half of time limited licences by 2021 (2,300 in total), adjusting them as necessary to make sure they do not allow environmental damage now or in the future

• adjust all permanent licences shown to be seriously damaging. This includes completing the Restoring Sustainable Abstraction programme, a list of 150 potentially damaging licences, by March 2020

• revoke an estimated 600 unused licences that are no longer needed, and work with abstractors to reduce under-used licences. This will prevent increased abstraction from these licences creating new environmental pressures

• regulate all significant abstractions that have been exempt historically (approximately 5,000) to make sure that they also play a part in protecting the water environment

• update ten abstraction licensing strategies by 2021 and all remaining strategies by 2027 to capture agreed solutions to environmental pressures

As well as making the best use of existing regulatory approaches, we want to work with abstractors to develop solutions that further improve the environment and improve access to water.

3. Developing a stronger catchment focus

A catchment is a geographical area within which rainwater and groundwater collect and contribute to the flow of a specific river. We believe that working collaboratively at a catchment scale will improve understanding of local challenges and help identify the right solutions for individual catchments.

The Environment Agency will support this by engaging with abstractors and existing local groups, such as catchment partnerships, in catchments facing the greatest challenges. This will produce updated abstraction licensing strategies that detail the solutions to environmental issues and set out approaches to help abstractors access the water they need. The figure below summarises the approach the Environment Agency will take.

We expect refreshed abstraction licensing strategies to recommend implementing approaches detailed in the abstraction reform consultation response such as:

• introducing controls on more licences to better protect the environment, particularly at low flows

• capping licences to prevent increased abstraction damaging the environment

• fine tuning the use of surface water and groundwater sources to make the best use of water when it is available while protecting the environment

• supporting rapid water trading where it is needed most to allow abstractors to share access to water quickly

• allowing some winter abstractors to take water at the highest flows in the summer to boost the use of stored water

• sharing real-time information on river flows and forecast changes to help abstractors plan their water use

• managing water discharges to benefit abstractors downstream who depend on them

3.1 Priority catchments

We have identified catchments where there is unmet demand for water and potential to use innovative licensing approaches to help meet that demand. Starting in 2018, the Environment Agency will use four catchments to test this collaborative approach to water management and the licensing tools listed above. The Environment Agency will learn from this work and focus on additional catchments in response to environmental impacts or the need to improve access to water. Following thorough local engagement, the Environment Agency will publish updated abstraction licensing strategies for 10 catchments by 2021.

We believe this approach to collaborative water management will achieve the results we need. However, government will monitor the progress made and the level of engagement with the process. If this approach has not brought significant improvements by 2021, and abstractors are not engaging, we will look at alternative approaches to increase the pace of change.

4. Supporting reform

Abstractors expect a flexible, fair and modern system that is consistent with other environmental regulation. However, the current system is paper-based and outside the environmental permitting regulations. A significant number of abstractors are also currently excluded from the system meaning they do not have the same regulatory controls as everyone else.

4.1 Modernising the service

We will be modernising the abstraction service to allow abstractors to:

• view, apply for, or amend their licences online

• report their water usage more simply

• access up to date information on water availability to help manage their abstraction more effectively providing better protection at low flows and allowing better access to high flows

Modernising these services will improve the user experience as well as supporting environmental protection and facilitating increased access to water.

4.2 Environmental permitting

We are planning to move abstraction and impounding regulations into the environmental permitting regulations (EPR). The move will provide a more modern and consistent legal framework for the day to day management of abstraction and impounding activities. We expect Defra to consult on the detail of the move in September 2021.

4.3 Removing exemptions

As set out in our recent consultation response, we will complete the coverage of the abstraction licensing system by removing all significant remaining exemptions relating to purpose and geography. This will bring all significant abstraction under regulation and create a fairer system where no group of abstractors will be able to expand at the cost of another group, or the environment.

5. Key milestones

• January 2018 – start testing digital abstraction licences

• January 2018 to 30 June 2020 – application window for previously exempt abstractions

• April 2018 – Environment Agency begins work in 4 priority catchments to test the approaches to improve access to water and begin to address local pressures

• By end of 2018 – Environment Agency to have revoked around 600 unused abstraction licences

• During 2019 – Defra reports to parliament demonstrating progress on abstraction reform

• By end 2019 – majority of licences available digitally and approach to submitting records online is improved

• 2020 – Environment Agency publish 4 updated abstraction licensing strategies from initial catchments

• January 2020 – Environment Agency begins to determine applications for previously exempt abstractions

• March 2020 – Environment Agency completes restoring sustainable abstraction programme

• September 2021 – Defra consult on moving abstraction and impounding licensing to EPR

• 2021 – Environment Agency publish an additional 6 updated abstraction licensing strategies

• 2021 – 2,300 time limited licences reviewed by 2021

• 2021 – Environment Agency will report on progress against environmental targets

• 31 December 2022 – all previously exempt abstractions will be permitted

• 2023 – abstraction and impounding moves into the EPR and all existing abstraction and impounding licences become environmental permits (subject to consultation)

• By 2027 – Environment Agency will have updated all abstraction licensing strategies