Building a resilient water future: Why land management must lead the way

When we think about the future of water, its quality, its availability, and our ability to manage floods, the discussion often returns to one core principle: soil health. Healthy soils function like natural sponges, increasing water retention, supporting biodiversity, and reducing the risk of flooding. This is why regenerative agricultural practices, along with tackling hidden soil compaction in grasslands, are becoming essential elements of long‑term water resilience strategies.

Rethinking regional water governance

Across the country, regional water resources groups are working to create a strategic approach to water management, and the CLA continues to support this ambition. However, the dominant influence of water companies within these groups has long been a source of frustration. In some regions, progress has been more notable than others, with certain partnerships evolving into genuinely multisector forums that have helped raise the level of discussion around water management. Even so, agriculture continues to be underserved, reflecting both structural imbalances within the groups and the fragmented nature of the farming sector.

The Cunliffe Review’s proposal for new regional water authorities offers a potential improvement. Ideally, these new authorities would sit above existing groups to ensure clearer accountability and more balanced representation.

Why distributed water storage matters

For many years, large-scale water infrastructure has dominated national investment programmes, yet landscape‑based, distributed storage presents vast untapped potential. Spreading water storage across the countryside can strengthen resilience at a lower cost and with wider environmental benefits. This type of storage can take many forms. For example, soils, such as those at Spains Hall Estate in Essex, have been shown to hold up to seven million litres of water per hectare. Wetlands, ponds, and ditches, along with rewetted peatlands, also provide valuable storage, as do opportunities for aquifer recharge and the creation of a network of farm reservoirs. Floodplain meadows represent another promising avenue, and the CLA continues to advocate for a new long‑term payment mechanism to reward landowners who enhance their water storage capacity.

Although funding for these approaches already exists through water company partnerships and agri‑environment schemes, uptake needs to be broadened and barriers significantly reduced.

Small reservoirs: Great potential, big challenges

Small, farm‑scale reservoirs have the potential to transform agricultural water security, yet many landowners continue to face considerable obstacles. Delays in planning processes, uncertainty around abstraction licensing, low margins in sectors such as field vegetables, and a lack of reliable grant or capital allowance support all hinder progress. The CLA is therefore advocating for practical reforms, including the introduction of a permitted development right (PDR) for small reservoirs, faster decisions on planning and abstraction licensing, and the reopening of the Water Management Grant within the Farming Transformation Fund, with sufficient advance notice to enable proper business planning. Although concerns exist regarding illegal gravel extraction, the wider value of stable domestic food production outweighs these risks, especially where reservoir size caps are in place.

Working in partnership with water companies

Improving water quality and river health requires water companies to adopt new ways of working. The CLA supports reforms that would encourage them to invest in pre‑pipe, nature‑based, and catchment‑scale solutions. These approaches rely on strong, collaborative partnerships with land managers. Several changes are needed to enable this, including more consistent and limited regulatory discretion, a shift to an outcomes‑based regulatory framework focused on overall expenditure rather than individual discharge points, longer optioneering periods to allow collaborative solutions to develop, and stronger support for SuDS and other catchment‑wide interventions.

Unlocking IDB capacity

Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) already play a crucial role in water level management, but with appropriate reforms they could contribute much more. Priority actions include de‑maining certain rivers so that IDBs can manage them more effectively, with funding transferred accordingly. Strengthening Public Sector Cooperation Agreements with the Environment Agency, granting trusted operator status to simplify permitting, establishing a clear long‑term government position on IDB responsibilities, and subsequently updating the Land Drainage Act 1991 are also essential. In addition, funding mechanisms must be reformed so IDBs can modernise their infrastructure and operate more effectively.

Abstraction reform: A strategy built for the future

A modern and fair approach to water allocation is long overdue. The CLA continues to call for a National Water Strategy that outlines how government will balance competing demands, from agriculture to data centres. Key elements of this strategy should include decision‑making led by an accountable Secretary of State, allowing year‑round abstraction during high‑flow periods supported by telemetry and modern monitoring tools, and providing long‑term security for abstractors if abstraction eventually moves under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. Businesses must also receive sufficient advance notice of any future reductions in abstraction so they can plan adequately.

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce and contested resource. Building a resilient and future‑proof water system will require empowering land managers, modernising outdated regulation, and investing in distributed and nature‑based solutions. The CLA’s recent engagement with the government’s water reform white paper, which analyses proposed regulatory changes and advocates for stronger, outcome‑focused frameworks that support land managers and rural businesses, highlights how these reforms can help secure water for food production, protect the natural environment, and deliver long‑term resource security