Environmental permits and abstraction licences: tables of charges
The Environment Agency's charging scheme for environmental permits, abstraction licences and impounding licences.
Applies to England
Documents
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:
- Environmental permits: when and how you are charged
- Water resources licences: when and how you are charged
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
If you are applying for an abstraction licence for your hydropower scheme, use Appendix 1: Hydroelectric power water abstraction levels.
We will implement the following charges as proposed in the consultation from 1 July 2025:
- all hourly rate charges
- fixed charges for medium combustion plant
- waste exemption registration and compliance charges
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.
Updates to this page
-
Updated the 'relevant discharge' definition – corrected error in references.
Update history
2025-08-19 12:00
Updated the charging scheme with version 1.7, containing amendments up to 18 August that include the water industry enforcement levy.
2025-08-07 13:12
Updated the ‘relevant discharge’ definition – corrected error in references.
2025-08-01 14:29
Updated the charges to reflect the outcome of the recent cost of service consultation.
2025-07-01 09:00
Updated to reflect the outcome of the consultation on charge proposals for waste crime and hourly rates, which take effect from 1 July 2025: all hourly rate charges; fixed charges for medium combustion plant; waste exemption registration and compliance charges.
2024-10-01 08:00
Updated the charging scheme document (PDF and ODT) to reflect amendments up to 1 October 2024.
2024-06-01 00:01
Updated the Environment Agency (Environmental Permitting and Abstraction Licensing) (England) Charging Scheme 2022 to reflect amendments up to 1 June 2024.
2024-04-10 16:29
Updated the charging scheme document (PDF and ODT) – removed Kielder from Table 2: Supported Source Additional Charges and created Table 2A: Supported Source Additional Charges for Kielder.
2023-07-18 16:15
We have removed the water resources annual charge indicator tool as it is currently unavailable for use.
2022-10-04 06:39
Updated the ‘Water resources annual charge indicator tool’ – corrected some errors in the the data behind the calculator.
2022-08-15 14:45
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.
2022-04-04 10:59
Added an ODT version of the charging scheme document as an alternative format.
2022-04-01 09:00
First published.