Norfolk Environment Food and Farming (Norfolk EFF) has members across Norfolk, as well as in parts of north Suffolk and south Lincolnshire. For planning work, these are divided into groups based on Environment Agency catchments. Our Planning Groups are for the:
In November 2025, we delivered a series of workshops at which the results of our modelling using the Environment Agency North East Anglian Chalk (NEAC) regional groundwater flow model were presented. The purpose of the modelling was to explore the vulnerability of members licences to change resulting from Environment Agency work on the Broads Plan, future Catchment Permit Reviews and Environmental Destination. Given the large number of water-dependent SSSIs and other designated sites in Norfolk, there is a concern that future licence reductions will be severe. The workshops were to present members with a preliminary view of these risks and issues, and to engage with them on next steps.
The results of the NEAC modelling show that there is a widespread risk of future licence reductions in Norfolk, and that outcomes for agricultural abstractors depend in part on the results of water company planning. The consensus from the workshops was that funding for the Norfolk Sustainable Abstraction (NSA) programme should be extended, and that these issues should be explored in more detail.
As part of the NEAC modelling work, Broadland catchment members have been assigned to sub- groups. As with the Environment Agency Local Resource Option (LRO) programme, these will be used to explore alternative options for responding to possible future reductions in licenced quantities. Work with the sub-groups will progress early in New Year 2026.
For members in south Lincolnshire, we have recently completed an equivalent piece of work, using water balance techniques to investigate the yield available from pumped and gravity drained IDB catchments.