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  5. Flood risk guidance for planning and development

Flood risk guidance for planning and development

Use this page to find out about our planning and development policies relating to flooding and surface water.

We are both the Lead Local Flood Authority and the Local Planning Authority. Together, we review planning applications to assess if they meet the national and local requirements for flood risk and surface water drainage.

This ensures that developments are appropriate and directed away from high-risk flood areas.

Guidance for developers

If you are a developer looking to make a new planning application, you should consider flood risk and drainage at an early stage.

The guidance and legislation on this page will help you to find the information you need.

You can also contact our planning pre-application advice team, who can help you get started with your planning application

Local and national planning policies

There are a number of local and national planning policies that you will need to be aware of and follow: 

Local policy and reports

National policy

Planning requirements

You may need to meet the following requirements as part of your planning application:

If you want to check if the local requirements apply to your particular development, check our local requirements for planning applications page.