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How to apply for a local water resources options screening study

Updated 4 June 2025

Applies to England

You can apply for a screening study with the Environment Agency to assess and rank water resources options to increase your water supply resilience as part of a group of neighbouring farmers.

1. Who can apply

You can apply for a screening study if you:

• are a group of 2 or more neighbouring farms (please note that larger farm groups may be separated into smaller screening study groups)
• manage or operate arable, horticultural, aquaculture, paludiculture, or livestock farms, including ornamentals or forestry nurseries
• currently abstract, or would like to abstract, water for irrigation or livestock husbandry located in England (you cannot apply with joint businesses or partnerships in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales)

The farmers in your group must either:

• own the land
• have a tenancy agreement with the landowner

You do not need to be a member of a Water Abstractor Group, farming facilitation group or similar to apply, but the Environment Agency encourage you to consider joining or starting a group in your area to improve your water resilience.

If you바카라 사이트™ve been involved in a local resource options (LRO) screening study previously, you are still eligible for this round, however priority will be given to farms that have not previously participated in the LRO programme.

2. What a screening study will do

The screening study will look at potential water resources options for your group of farmers to improve your water resource resilience.

It will screen and rank these options based on:

• hydrology
• cost
• yield
• suitability for required water use

The study will be specific to the area and give location specific advice. It will provide a report with outline requirements for the  best options, including:

• guidance and next steps for implementation
• potential barriers to progression

3. What a screening study will not do

A screening study will not:

• affect the likelihood of acceptance of any permit, abstraction licence or planning applications due to your involvement in a study
• reduce or remove requirements for any abstraction licence applications or planning permissions required to develop and implement the local water resources options
• provide legal agreements for setting up a water sharing company between members of the group
• design engineering specifications for the local water resources options
• carry forward any of the options or provide funding for their implementation; it will only provide a report outlining the options in detail

Taking part in a screening study will not affect any current abstraction or impounding licences you hold. You are not be obligated to implement all or any of the recommendations in the LRO report.

4. When to apply

Applications open on 2 June 2025 and close at 23:59pm on 20 July 2025.

5. How to apply

You will need to appoint a lead contact who will apply on behalf of the group. The lead contact should collate all information for all the farms in the study before applying.

The lead contact will need to answer questions about:

• the farm names, addresses, contact information, and details about the size and nature of the businesses
• water abstraction licence numbers and what the water is being used for, for example, irrigation for crop production, fish farming (aquaculture), supporting livestock
• any issues or concerns the farms have about the future of their water abstraction licences
• water constraints that farms face (for example, recent section 57 spray irrigation restrictions or 바카라 사이트˜hands off flow바카라 사이트™ conditions)
• any existing water resource resilience measures that farms in the application group are using
• if farms are part of a formal Water Abstractor Group, farming facilitation group or similar, or if they plan to start a group or join an existing one

You must also provide a detailed land map of your group바카라 사이트™s farmland. This can be either a map for each individual farm or one larger map encompassing the entire area. If you do not already have a map, Land App and Google Maps are online resources that can assist in creating one.

The information you provide will help us build a picture of the farming businesses who wish to be involved in the screening study.

The lead contact must complete the application form and email it to: wragriculture@environment-agency.gov.uk

Use the application form to apply for a local water resources option screening study.

6. How the Environment Agency will assess applications

Applications for screening studies are competitive. The Environment Agency will review the information in your application. They will prioritise approving applications by groups of farms that:

• are at risk of sustainability reductions to abstraction licences
• have received a letter from the Environment Agency about potential future licence reductions
• are located near water bodies with poor ecological status
• are in a catchment with either no, or restricted, water available for abstraction
• are in a region or agricultural sector that has been underrepresented in the LRO screening study programme

Applications will be scored in accordance with public sector principles of transparency, honesty and fairness.

7. If your application is successful

The Environment Agency aims to give you a decision within 20 working days of the application closing.

If your group is selected for a screening study, the lead contact will be notified by email. You must reply within one week of receiving this email to confirm that your group still wishes to take part.

Once the study begins, it is essential that your group responds promptly to any requests for information from the consultants. Failure to do so may result in your group being removed from the study.

A group or individual farmer may be removed from the study if they:

• do not reply to the acceptance email within one week of receiving it
• do not respond to the consultants within the first 2 weeks of the project start date
• fail to provide the requested information within the first month of the study

See the 바카라 사이트˜How the study will work바카라 사이트™ and 바카라 사이트˜How the Environment Agency manages your data바카라 사이트™ sections of this guide for more information on:

• use of data
• requirements of the group in relating to site visits and meetings

There will be a wait between your application being accepted and work starting while the Environment Agency appoints suitable water resources consultants. You will be kept up to date on timings during this process.

8. If your application is unsuccessful

The Environment Agency will write to you and tell you why. If you바카라 사이트™re unhappy with the decision, you should follow the Environment Agency바카라 사이트™s complaints procedure. 

If additional funding becomes available to the Environment Agency for screening studies, they may look again at your application and write to you at a later date.

9. How the study will work

The Environment Agency will procure and have contractual agreements with water resources consultants to provide each screening study. This is separate to the agreement they have with your farm group about what is expected from you.

The water resources consultants will arrange to visit the farms in your application. During these visits, they will ask about your current water needs, use and future water-related business ambitions.

The consultants will build a conceptual model of the area using:

• summary information about water abstraction licences in your area
• records of recent actual abstraction
• information from the farming businesses on water use requirements and aims
• publicly available data on the local water bodies, hydrology, hydrogeology, geology and climate
• other relevant information from your local regional water resources group about ongoing or planned projects

The consultants will then screen and rank potential water resources options for your group. These could include:

• farm storage reservoirs (new, resizing or change to multi-season operation)
• water rights trading (where all or part of a licence is temporarily or permanently traded, for example, farm group partners form a company under which some or all water rights are held, perhaps in a single licence)
• water sharing (for example, the licence holder retains their licence, but shares water with another)
• water efficiency tools
• demand and leakage reduction
• improve connectivity of existing sources
• water recycling
• drainage water use
• managed aquifer recharge
• rainwater harvesting
• conjunctive use schemes, for example, a mix of groundwater and surface water

The water resources consultants will involve you in the process. Members may be expected to attend 2 or 3 group meetings to discuss and give feedback on the options before the consultants finalise and send you your local resources options report.

10. How the Environment Agency manages your data

See the Environment Agency바카라 사이트™s personal information charter to find out how the Environment Agency treats your personal information and what details are held.

The Environment Agency will share information on your abstraction and impoundment licences with the water resources consultants for use in the studies. This will be under a data licence which will define how the data can be used by them, how it is to be stored, and for how long it can be retained before they are required to destroy it.

The data that you provide to the water resources consultants will be used during your screening study and may appear in the local resource options (LRO) report.

The LRO report is confidential and will be shared only with your farm group and a limited number of relevant stakeholders, including your regional water resources group and the Water for Food Group. It will not be shared publicly. All farmers who are part of the study will receive the same report, which may include personal data contained within your original application form about other farms within the study.

While the study is ongoing, the Environment Agency, your regional water resources group and the Water for Food Group may review the draft outputs.

Once the study has finished, the Environment Agency will share outputs, including your LRO report, with your regional water resources group to support regional water resources planning. They may also share outputs with the Water for Food Group to help inform the support that they give the agricultural sector on water resources resilience.

The Environment Agency will combine all study outputs to consider trends and common barriers to development of water resources. They will share the combined outputs, study reports and summary documents with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local 바카라 사이트 (MHCLG), and potentially relevant ministers. This will provide evidence for policy and regulatory change to help improve the long-term resilience of water supplies for agriculture.

The Environment Agency may develop a high-level case study based on your screening study to help promote the programme and share its outcomes. The case study will not include any personal data and will be shared with you for comment before publication. If the Environment Agency does not receive feedback within the given timeframe, they will assume you are happy for it to be published.