A Flooded People UK investigation

Where the EA said no
and councils said yes anyway.

UK planning applications where the Environment Agency objected on flood-risk grounds — and what the local council decided. We surface the cases granted in spite of EA advice, the developers behind them, and the floodplains they overlap.

Open the map →Source data on gov.uk
636
Granted against EA flood-risk advice
23,372
Total objected applications
426
Local planning authorities
Worst-offending LPAs
#1
49 cases
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham
21% of EA-objected applications granted anyway
#2
26 cases
Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead
Repeat overrides on the Thames floodplain
#3
21 cases
Cornwall Council
Coastal and fluvial flood-risk approvals
How to use this
  • Click any case to see the developer, agent, decision, and original PDFs.
  • Filter by year range or "granted against advice" only.
  • Toggle satellite view to see the actual floodplain context.
  • The Insights panel ranks repeat developers and agents by case count.