Drought and Farm Planning: What You Can Build Without Permission

This summer's drought has again pushed water security to the top of the farm business agenda, with abstraction restrictions returning to parts of England and reservoir levels dropping fast. For many farm businesses, the real lesson isn't just how to get through this dry spell — it's how to plan storage and irrigation infrastructure now, using permitted development rights, so the next drought doesn't catch the business out. Here's what you can build without a full planning application, and where the rules still require separate consent.

Why This Summer's Drought Should Change Your Water Planning

Repeated dry summers have made one thing clear: reservoirs and irrigation infrastructure need to be built during wetter periods, ahead of need, not scrambled together once restrictions are already in place. A full planning application for a new reservoir or irrigation scheme can take months to determine, by which point the growing season — or the drought — has already passed. Farm businesses that rely on spray irrigation for high-value crops, or on stored water for livestock, are increasingly building winter-fill reservoirs and boreholes during the autumn and winter, specifically so capacity is in place before the following summer's demand peaks.

What Permitted Development Allows for Water Storage and Irrigation

Agricultural permitted development rights under Part 6 of the General Permitted Development Order allow certain works "reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture" on units of five hectares or more, without a planning application. This can include groundworks, irrigation equipment and reservoirs, provided they stay within set limits: no part of the works within 25 metres of a trunk or classified road, height generally capped, and no significant adverse effect on the amenity of the area. A prior notification to the local planning authority is normally still required for larger buildings and works, giving the council a limited opportunity to object on siting and design grounds before you proceed.

Sinking a borehole for water supply typically falls within the same agricultural permitted development framework, but the physical works and the right to abstract water are two separate things. Any abstraction above 20 cubic metres a day needs a separate licence from the Environment Agency, regardless of whether the borehole or reservoir itself needed planning permission — and current licence processing times mean this should be started well before the works themselves.

Practical Implications for Farm Businesses

Reservoirs with a capacity above 10,000 cubic metres are regulated under reservoir safety legislation and may need an Environmental Impact Assessment screening opinion from the local planning authority before work starts, even where the reservoir itself would otherwise qualify as permitted development. Skipping this step doesn't remove the requirement — it just creates a compliance problem later.

Where works affect a watercourse or drainage ditch, land drainage consent from the Environment Agency or the local Internal Drainage Board runs alongside, not instead of, any planning position, and is often the step that actually determines the project timeline.

Because winter-fill reservoirs depend on wetter months to fill, the practical planning window for this year's rainfall is short — schemes started after the spring won't have water in them by the time the next dry summer arrives. The CLA and NFU have both flagged farm water security as a growing business risk and are pressing for faster abstraction licensing decisions and clearer guidance on reservoir thresholds, precisely so farmers can build ahead of a drought rather than during one.

How Foxes Rural Can Help

We help farm businesses work out exactly what permitted development already allows on their holding, and where a prior notification, an Environmental Impact Assessment screening request, or a full planning application is genuinely needed for reservoir, borehole and irrigation projects. Acting now, while conditions and guidance are clear, puts you in a far stronger position than starting from scratch in the middle of next year's dry spell, and we work in line with the latest CLA and NFU guidance on farm water security. Call us on 01206 481981 or get in touch via our Contact page to talk through your farm's water planning.