Statutory guidance

Environmental permits and abstraction licences: tables of charges

The Environment Agency's charging scheme for environmental permits and abstraction and impounding licences from 1 April 2022.

Applies to England

Documents

The Environment Agency (Environmental Permitting and Abstraction Licensing) (England) Charging Scheme 2022

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Water resources annual charge indicator tool

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Map of Environment Agency regional charge areas

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Details

The charging scheme sets out the Environment Agency charges for activities that require:

  • a permit or registered exemption under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016
  • an abstraction or impounding licence under the Water Resources Act 1991 and Water Act 2003

To work out your application and annual charges you can use the guidance:

For water resources licences you can use the information in the water resources mapping tool to see:

  • the surface water availability or groundwater status at the location
  • whether the abstraction takes water from a supported source
  • whether the abstraction point is in a modelling area

Use this information with the tables of charges to calculate your:

  • application charge
  • annual charge

You can also use the water resources annual charge indicator tool for straightforward licences. You cannot use it for aggregated licences.

If you are applying for an abstraction licence for your hydropower scheme, use Appendix 1: Hydroelectric power water abstraction levels.

Get help

If you have a question about your bill, use the contact details on the back of your invoice.

If you have a question about calculating a charge contact the Environment Agency:

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone 03708 506 506

Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

The impact of COVID-19 means you may experience some delays in responses.

Published 1 April 2022
Last updated 154 AugustOctober 2022 + show all updates
  1. Updated the 'Water resources annual charge indicator tool' - corrected some errors in the the data behind the calculator.

  2. Updated the charging scheme document (PDF and ODT) to correct an error in the 'Tables of charges' section, chapter 4: additional charges, table 2: supported source additional charges. In this table we corrected the definition of 'medium loss' in column six to 200 to 367 megalitres (Ml) per year.

  3. Added an ODT version of the charging scheme document as an alternative format.

  4. First published.