Flood Risk Evidence for Planning Consultants
Defensible Flood Risk Assessments, Sequential and Exception Tests and drainage strategies that answer the policy tests directly — so your applications validate, and stand up if challenged.
Evidence Written to the Policy Tests, Not Around Them
Planning consultants need flood risk evidence that does one thing above all: answer the policy tests in order, with numbers, so an officer can tick them off. Since the August 2026 NPPF put flood risk into coded policies F1 to F9, that matters more than ever — a report that describes the flood zone and stops will not get through Policy F7. We write to the tests, reference the current Framework, and structure the report so the officer's job is easy.
We prepare site-specific FRAs, Sequential and Exception Test statements, Flood Consequence Assessments for Wales under TAN 15, and surface water drainage strategies to the National SuDS Standards. We also take on the difficult ones: responding to LLFA or Environment Agency objections, rescuing applications refused on flood or drainage grounds, and providing evidence for appeals.
Because the consultant doing the work spent years inside a Lead Local Flood Authority reviewing exactly these submissions, we know where objections come from — and how to avoid giving an officer a reason to raise one.
What Planning Consultants Get From Us
✓ FRAs structured to the NPPF F-policies, EA standing advice and the LLFA's local standards
✓ Sequential and Exception Test statements with the site search evidence officers expect
✓ Objection responses and refusal rescues — we review the reasons and revise the evidence
✓ Appeal-ready reports: clear, referenced, and consistent with the rest of your submission
✓ Fixed fees quoted within 24 hours, no VAT, so you can price your instruction
✓ Direct liaison with the LLFA and EA on technical queries, keeping you in the loop
Where We Add Most Value
The situations where good flood evidence makes or breaks the application.
Sequential & Exception Tests
Sites in Flood Zone 2 or 3 where the Tests apply — we produce the evidence, the site-search reasoning and the safety case in a form officers accept.
Objections & refusals
An LLFA or EA objection, or a refusal on flood or drainage grounds — we identify exactly what's missing, revise the evidence and get it resolved.
Change of use & prior approval
Class MA, office and commercial conversions in flood zones — the FRA that prior approval routes require, proportionate and quick.
Wales — TAN 15
Flood Consequence Assessments under TAN 15 and the Flood Map for Planning (Wales), written to Natural Resources Wales' expectations.
Which Works Need a Permit — and Which Don't
The permitting system is tiered. Getting your activity into the right tier first is what saves the time and cost.
Not every activity near water needs a full permit. Under the Environmental Permitting Regulations, a flood risk activity is either excluded (no permission needed), exempt (allowed, but must be registered with the Environment Agency), or requires a full Flood Risk Activity Permit. We work out exactly where your proposal sits before any application is made — so you don't pay for a permit you don't need, or get caught out by one you do.
When a permit is needed
Broadly, for works in, over, under or within 8 metres of a main river (16 m for a tidal main river), within 8 metres of a flood defence, or within the floodplain of a main river — including bridges, culverts, outfalls, walls, buildings, bank and bed works, and temporary works.
Main river vs ordinary watercourse
A permit only applies to a designated main river. Works to an ordinary watercourse are consented by the Lead Local Flood Authority instead, through Ordinary Watercourse Consent — so the first step is always confirming which one you're dealing with on the EA's main river map.
What we prepare
Where a permit is required we prepare and submit the application — location and works plans, a method statement, and any hydraulic modelling or flood risk information the EA asks for — and manage the EA liaison through to determination.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Free, no-obligation fixed-fee quote within 24 hours. All flood zones and LLFAs covered across England and Wales.
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