Policy paper

London abstraction licensing strategy

The Environment Agency's approach to managing new and existing abstraction and impoundment within the London catchment.

Documents

Details

This abstraction licensing strategy is for the London catchment in the Thames river basin district.

Our approach ensures that we:

Our guidance on聽managing water abstraction聽gives the technical explanation, legal and policy requirements behind the strategy.

Please see our guidance if you need to:

Updates to this page

Published 15 March 2013
Last updated 19 May 2025 show all updates
  1. Added information on 3 new assessment points added to the catchment. Revised explanation of our area approach to abstractions from the the Confined Chalk, with particular information relevant to ground sources heat pumps. Expanded information on the water resources dependant ecology in the catchment. Minor changes to the status of water bodies and the hands off flows in all assessment points. Added new maps, where necessary, to reflect these changes. Changed format from PDF to HTML.

  2. Abstraction management strategies have been updated with the latest information on water resource availability.

  3. Abstraction management strategies have been updated with the latest information on water resource availability.

  4. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page