Get advice before you apply for a water abstraction or impounding licence
Use the pre-application advice service to find out the likelihood of getting a licence, what restrictions it may have and what you need to send with your application.
Applies to England
Before you apply for an abstraction or impounding licence, you should:
1. Check if you need an abstraction licence or impounding licence. If you are still unsure you can request enhanced pre-application advice.
2. Check how much water is available in your area from the water abstraction licensing strategies.
3. Use the Environment Agency’s pre-application advice service to make an informed choice on whether to apply. You can get:
- basic advice – this service is free
- enhanced advice – you pay for this service
Basic advice
You can get free basic pre-application advice on:
- the type of licence you need
- which application forms you should use
- what guidance you must follow
- the administrative tasks you may need to do as part of your application
- where to find the application and annual charges
Enhanced (paid-for) advice
Getting in-depth advice from the enhanced advice service will help you know:
- if you are likely to get a licence
- what restrictions your licence may have
- how to submit a good quality application
The service could cover advice on:
- information you will need to include with your application
- assessments or monitoring you may need to complete or significant issues you may need to resolve before applying, for example, impacts on fish or eels, existing abstractors, geomorphology or the ecological status of a waterbody under the Water Framework Directive
- what important hydrological information you need to provide with your application and what information the Environment Agency can give you
- complex applications, such as high public interest, nationally significant infrastructure projects
- possible restrictions, for example on when you can abstract and monitoring requirements
- complex application charge questions
- complex modelling for certain groundwater scenarios, including analysis of groundwater investigation consent results
- whether you need a licence if you are still not sure after you have used the check if you need an abstraction licence or impounding licence guidance
How much it costs
The enhanced service costs £100 an hour plus VAT.
How long it will take to prepare the advice will depend on how complex your proposal is.
The Environment Agency will discuss your proposal with you and give you a written cost estimate. This will include:
- a list of the work they will carry out
- when you will be charged
If you send new information related to your request, the Environment Agency may need to revise the cost estimate. They will write to you to agree any changes to the amount of the work they will carry out.
You need to agree to any cost estimates in writing before the Environment Agency can start work on your application.
What the service cannot help with
The pre-application advice service cannot:
- confirm that all or part of your licence application will be acceptable before you have applied
- confirm that you will get a licence when you apply
- plan or design your abstraction scheme
- carry out hydrological monitoring for you if you need to provide this with your application
Request pre-application advice
To get pre-application advice for:
- a hydropower scheme, see new hydropower scheme: apply to build one
- an open loop heat pump system, use the application forms on open loop heat pump systems: permits, consents and licences
- abstracting groundwater, you must first check if you need to apply for consent to investigate a groundwater source – this includes from boreholes, wells, springs, quarries and mineral workings
For all other proposals use the relevant application forms and guidance notes to ask for pre-application advice. For:
- abstraction, complete part A and part B
- impounding, complete part A and part D
The forms explain where to send the information.
Contact the Environment Agency
General enquiries
National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY
Email [email protected]
Telephone 03708 506 506
Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Updates to this page
Published 1 April 2022Last updated 3 July 2023 + show all updates
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Explained what you need to do before you request pre-application advice. Explained how the enhanced service can help you decide whether to apply for a licence and what to include with your application. Set out where to get pre-application advice for hydropower, heat pumps and abstracting groundwater activities.
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Added a link to new guidance 'apply for consent to investigate a groundwater source'.
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First published.