Making flood defence consents part of the environmental permitting framework

We want to know what you think about our proposals to change flood defence consents by including them in the environmental permitting framework.

Flood defence consents are needed before people undertake activities in, on, over, under or near watercourses to ensure they do not increase flood risk. Changing these consents to be part of the risk based environmental permitting framework will allow us to introduce different types of permits. This would reduce the burdens on applicants by allowing quicker and simpler ways of applying for a permit. It will also allow the Environment Agency to focus on the high risk activities.

These changes would apply to England and Wales.