The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Government have published a summary of responses to the consultation on reform of the abstraction licensing regime which highlights a number of key issues over proposed changes.

The purpose of the consultation was to seek views on a range of proposals for reforming the water abstraction management system in England and in Wales.

The proposals set out two main options for reform – known as  ‘Current System Plus’ and ‘Water Shares’. The key difference between Current System Plus and Water Shares is the proposed method for linking water abstraction to water availability in surface water, although both methods aim to increase the amount of water that can be used. Both options would make it quicker and easier for abstractors to trade water with each other, though Water Shares allows for a greater range of trades to be pre-approved than in Current System Plus.

Current System Plus would link abstraction to water availability using annual and daily volumetric constraints, as in the current system. These tools would be further refined, allowing more water to be abstracted when more is available and restricting abstraction at very low flows.

The Water Shares option would give abstractors a share of the available water in a catchment, rather than an absolute amount, encouraging abstractors to take a shared responsibility for water resources in catchments.

The responses from all sectors in Wales recognised the need for reform of the abstraction licensing system. Overall, there was a preference for CSP, although non-agricultural  abstractors felt that trading would be of limited benefit for their operations.

The total number of consultation responses received was 318. Out of this total, 182 respondents were licence holders. The highest number of responses was from the farming sector who accounted for 36% of the total, with water companies accounting for 9%. The East of England was the region with the most respondents (27%).

A number of key themes have emerged from the consultation, across a number of different sectors, including:

• Support for the principle of linking water abstraction to water availability;
• Agreement from many that quicker and easier trading would benefit abstractors;
• Agreement from a majority of respondents that trading should initially be limited to those with a direct interest in abstracting water;
• Broad agreement that there should be a more consistent approach to making changes to abstraction conditions;
• Support for a catchment specific approach when designing the rules for moving licences into a new system;
• The importance of defining how much water is “available”; how the Environmental Flow Indicator (EFI) is used and the need for site-specific understanding of environmental requirements; and what exactly constitutes the high flows which would be available for additional abstraction;
• The identification of potential benefits from additional storage, linked with concerns about the practicalities, cost and complexity of its provision and any associated infrastructure;
• The importance of a guaranteed water supply to a range of businesses, and the impact on business planning of the perceived uncertainty arising from these proposals;
• Concerns about the process of moving to a reformed system, particularly around licensed volumes;
• The need for further information on how abstraction of groundwater would be linked to availability in a new system;
• The need for clarity on how the proposals interact with drought management ; and
• Reasonable support for the concept of having basic and enhanced catchments, though some respondents were concerned this could lead to a ‘two tier’ system.

A number of sectors also asked for special consideration given their unique circumstances, including both the food and drink sector and thermal power stations due to the strategic importance of their industries; the public water supply due to their strategic importance and statutory requirements; the farming sector due to animal welfare and food security issues; horticulture because container grown crops cannot survive more than twenty-four hours without water; and the paper industry because paper manufacturing requires consistent access to water. 

 The responses to the consultation will now be used to inform policy decisions on the nature of potential reforms.