The Environment Agency has published detailed new guidance on the approach needed to propose a regional environmental destination for water resources and the steps to get there.

The guidance is primarily intended for regional groups and water companies to support them in proposing the environmental destination for water resources for their region.

The aim of the guidance is to ensure that regional groups follow a structured and consistent approach whilst allowing flexibility to agree an environmental destination that reflects local and regional priorities.

The focus for the guidance is planning for the environment. Implementation of actions including licence changes ahead of sustainability reductions to deliver planned environmental outcomes is not considered in the guidance.

The environmental destination is an important step in informing the direction of the overall regional plan. As referenced in the EA’s Water Resources Planning Guideline (WRPG), environmental destination planning should be integral to the development of Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs) and regional plans.

The Agency expects regional groups to work with other abstractors and stakeholder groups in development of this - the guidance explains how others can get involved in the process.

However, the guidance does not provide specific guidance for sectors other than public water supply. The Agency says it will review the need for further guidance as part of its engagement with these sectors.

The Agency explains that water company WRMPs must align with regional plans, or justify where they do not, saying that for this reason the guidance is primarily written for regional groups and water companies but will be of wider interest to regulators, other abstractors and environmental stakeholders.

The EA is recommending users refer to its Environmental Destination technical report as they work through the guidance.

Introducing the guidance, the EA says regional water resources groups have an important role in helping to identify how best to provide an efficient, sustainable and resilient supply of water for all water users in their region over at least the next 25 years which includes developing and refining a long-term environmental destination.

The EA has set out the following key features of the Environmental Destination for Water Resources

The Environmental Destination for Water Resources:

• Identifies where, and by how much, water abstraction needs to change to achieve and maintain a healthy water environment, both now and in the future.
• Applies in England and is developed by defining the long-term environmental outcomes to ensure abstraction from rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries is environmentally sustainable, both to address current unsustainable abstraction and future pressures.
• Summarises the cumulative impact of statutory environmental objectives, regulatory requirements and other environmental commitments on England’s water resources and associated water environments.
• Calculates ‘the gap’ to meet current and future environmental outcomes (where and by how much abstraction may need to reduce) to enable environmentally sustainable abstraction.
• Sets out a range of future water needs for the environment, from current requirements to full government environmental commitments (referred to as environmental planning scenarios).

Overview of the environmental planning scenarios

The National Framework 2025 has developed three Environmental Destination planning scenarios in addition to the EA’s baseline analysis of current unsustainable abstraction. The scenarios consider a range of environmental requirements which are used to understand current and future abstraction pressures, summarised as:

• 1.3.1. Baseline – current regulatory approach in today’s climate - describes current unsustainable abstraction. Used as the baseline to estimate environmental water requirements in today’s climate.
• 1.3.2. Current 2050/2080 – current regulatory approach under a changing climate. Under this scenario the regulatory approach remains the same as in section 1.3.1, but also takes account of predicted climate change impacts.
• 1.3.3. Intermediate 2050/2080 – current regulatory approach with additional protections under a changing climate. This scenario sees greater environmental protection for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) rivers and wetlands, principal salmon and chalk rivers.
• 1.3.4. Full 2050/2080 – full environmental requirements under a changing climate This scenario builds on the intermediate 2050/2080 scenario but provides further protection for headwaters in chalk rivers and SSSIs. It assumes good status for all WFD waterbodies (including those currently exempt) will be achieved in line with government policy and supported commitments. This is assessed taking account of predicted climate change impacts.

Click here to download Environmental Destination for Water Resources planning guidance - To support water company and regional water resources planning April 2026

Click here to download the Environmental Destination technical report June 2025