Flood Risk Management Plans

We've worked together with the Environment Agency (EA) to produce draft Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) for public consultation, and we now want to hear your views.

FRMPs are strategic plans that set out how to manage flood risk in nationally identified flood risk areas (FRAs) for the period 2021-2027. They are statutory plans required by the Flood Risk Regulations 2009.

The public consultation on the draft FRMPs will run until 21 January 2022. We want your views and comments to help inform a final set of plans and actions to manage flood risk between 2021-2027.

There are 10 draft FRMPs, one for each river basin district.

A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) was undertaken for each FRMP to ensure that environmental effects were considered during the development of the plans. We're also consulting on the 10 SEA reports and their non-technical summaries. The reports set out the findings of the SEA.

There are a number of new features for FRMPs 2021 to 2027:

• Strategic - they're strategic and focus on areas where the risk of flooding has been identified as nationally significant
  • these areas are FRAs, where there is the potential for significant risk or impacts should major flooding occur from surface water, main rivers and the sea
  • we continue to work with other RMAs to manage flood risk outside of FRAs for other communities
• Accessible - they aim to be more accessible and easier to use for our stakeholders and the public than the 2015-2021 FRMPs, with greater use of online mapping
• Flood plan explorer - the measures will be displayed on an online map-based tool called flood plan explorer
  • this will show what flood risk management measures are proposed at a national and local scale and how they are progressing
  • flood plan explorer can be found on DATA.GOV
• National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England - they aim to support and contribute to the delivery of the ambitions in the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (FCERM Strategy), such as nature-based solutions, and longer term adaptive approaches for taking action at the right time

Why your views matter

Flood risk management plans will help to contribute to creating a better place for people and wildlife. There are over 5.2 million homes and businesses in England at risk of flooding and coastal erosion.

With a rapidly changing climate, the need to plan together to improve the overall resilience of our local places is more important than ever before. The more we plan together and deliver in partnership, the more we can deliver together for local people, places and our environment.

The plans will also help to inform and drive existing programmes of work, such as the Programme of flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes, and work with local communities to improve resilience.

The plans will explore wider resilience measures like nature-based solutions for flood and water, and to set out longer term adaptive approaches for taking action at the right time.

They will also help us implement the ambitions of the government’s 25 year environment plan and flood and coastal erosion risk management policy statement (2020).

Responding to the consultation

We encourage you to submit your response to the consultation online, which will enable you to manage your comments more effectively. It will also help us to gather and summarise responses quickly and accurately.

If you respond online and provide an email address, your response will be automatically acknowledged and you will receive a receipt. We will publish a consultation response document summarising key themes on the GOV.UK website within 12 weeks of the consultation closing.

River Basin Management Plans

Rivers, lakes, canals, estuaries, coasts and groundwater, and the essential services they provide to society, are worth billions of pounds to the UK economy.

However, wildlife and the benefits provided by the water environment are threatened by the damage caused through development, industry, flood protection and agriculture. The climate and biodiversity crises and a growing population are adding to these pressures. Without concerted action, irreparable harm will be done to the water environment and the goods and services it provides, impacting lives and livelihoods, now and for future generations. Urgent action is needed to protect and improve England’s waters and find a better balance that meets the needs of people and nature. We all must act now to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate. River basin management plans set out how to achieve this; they include the objectives and measures required to protect and improve the water environment.

The government’s 25 Year Environment Plan includes the target of improving at least three-quarters of our waters to be close to their natural state as soon as is practicable. This target is based on the 5000 water body status objectives in the current river basin management plans. River basin management plans are therefore an important tool in helping to deliver this 25 Year Environment Plan target.

The current river basin management plans were published in February 2016. This consultation is the final stage in the process of reviewing and updating these plans.

The draft updated plans are hosted on GOV.UK.

The questions in this consultation relate to the content in the draft plans. Responding to these questions will help us understand your views and produce better river basin management plans.

Page last updated: 10 December 2021