The National Framework for Water Resources - Join Our Community

Concerned About Long-Term Water Needs?

Join our community! Over the coming months, we’ll host webinars, share valuable information, and collaborate with key stakeholders to help ensure a sustainable water future. If you don’t have an Engagement HQ account, please register, return to this page, and subscribe to receive updates from our team.

Front cover of the National Framework for Water Resources (2025) Summary Document, featuring a landscape image of a river and sky

What is the National Framework for Water Resources 2025?

The Environment Agency’s National Framework for Water Resources shows how a sustainable water environment can thrive while supporting a growing economy. It provides a strategic approach for water resources planning to enable actions to be identified and delivered to address England’s long-term water needs. It sets out the scale of action required to ensure resilient water supplies while improving the environment.

Explore the NFWR and technical appendices

Small green plants growing in dry, cracked soil

Current and Future Water Pressures

Without continued and enhanced action, we could have a 5 billion litre a day shortfall by 2055 for public water supplies alone. Apart from the threat to water supply to homes, growing pressure could restrict economic growth, damage resilience for energy supplies, limit food production and harm the environment.

Current and future pressures include:

  • Environmental sustainability: sustainable abstraction supports growth with reliable access to water whilst maintaining a healthy and resilient water environment
  • Increasing population: forecasts suggest the population in England will increase by over 8 million by 2055
  • Climate change: we are facing less water overall, with hotter and drier summers
  • Improved resilience to drought: water companies are planning to be resilient to a 1 in 500-year drought event

Environmental Destination for Water Resources

The  environmental destination for water resources identifies where and by how much water abstraction needs to change to achieve and maintain a healthy water environment, both now and in the future. It forms a core part of the Environment Agency's long-term approach to sustainable abstraction and is aligned with the National Framework for Water Resources.

Multi-Sector Water Use

The National Framework for Water Resources 2025 outlines the water needs of key sectors, including energy, agriculture, and the wider economy (including sustainable growth). It highlights the need for all water users to plan for greater resilience and encourages joined-up approaches to water resources planning.

Learn how the Environment Agency is supporting abstractors, particularly farmers, through Local Resource Option (LRO) screening studies that identify practical, collaborative solutions to improve water resilience.

Visit the Local Resource Option Water Hub page

The Modelling Behind the National Framework

The National Framework for Water Resources takes a scenario-based approach to model the impacts on public water supply under a range of future demand, climate, and environmental conditions. This approach helps us assess the range of uncertainty in these pressures and estimate the potential range of water supply deficits we may face. By providing an updated view of future water needs, the modelling sets the context for the next round of water company planning (WRMP29).

Explore the WR Modelling Interactive Dashboard to view the modelling outputs and the assumptions behind them.

The figures provided through this analysis underpin the National Framework and are discussed in detail in both the summary and main report. Further information on the modelling and forecasting approach will be available in the Water Resources Modelling Technical Report, to be published in autumn 2025.

Why Water Efficiency Matters and What You Can Do

Everyone has a role to play in using water more carefully and efficiently. Reducing demand benefits society by easing pressure on the environment, lowering energy use for wastewater pumping and treatment, and reducing the need for new supplies to meet growth. In turn, this helps cut emissions, reduce costs, and support a healthier and more sustainable natural environment.

However, tackling demand alone is not enough. Water companies must also continue investing in new assets and resilient infrastructure to meet society’s need for water.

We encourage everyone to be smarter with water.

For practical tips and guidance, visit Waterwise, the UK’s leading authority on water efficiency.


Concerned About Long-Term Water Needs?

Join our community! Over the coming months, we’ll host webinars, share valuable information, and collaborate with key stakeholders to help ensure a sustainable water future. If you don’t have an Engagement HQ account, please register, return to this page, and subscribe to receive updates from our team.

Front cover of the National Framework for Water Resources (2025) Summary Document, featuring a landscape image of a river and sky

What is the National Framework for Water Resources 2025?

The Environment Agency’s National Framework for Water Resources shows how a sustainable water environment can thrive while supporting a growing economy. It provides a strategic approach for water resources planning to enable actions to be identified and delivered to address England’s long-term water needs. It sets out the scale of action required to ensure resilient water supplies while improving the environment.

Explore the NFWR and technical appendices

Small green plants growing in dry, cracked soil

Current and Future Water Pressures

Without continued and enhanced action, we could have a 5 billion litre a day shortfall by 2055 for public water supplies alone. Apart from the threat to water supply to homes, growing pressure could restrict economic growth, damage resilience for energy supplies, limit food production and harm the environment.

Current and future pressures include:

  • Environmental sustainability: sustainable abstraction supports growth with reliable access to water whilst maintaining a healthy and resilient water environment
  • Increasing population: forecasts suggest the population in England will increase by over 8 million by 2055
  • Climate change: we are facing less water overall, with hotter and drier summers
  • Improved resilience to drought: water companies are planning to be resilient to a 1 in 500-year drought event

Environmental Destination for Water Resources

The  environmental destination for water resources identifies where and by how much water abstraction needs to change to achieve and maintain a healthy water environment, both now and in the future. It forms a core part of the Environment Agency's long-term approach to sustainable abstraction and is aligned with the National Framework for Water Resources.

Multi-Sector Water Use

The National Framework for Water Resources 2025 outlines the water needs of key sectors, including energy, agriculture, and the wider economy (including sustainable growth). It highlights the need for all water users to plan for greater resilience and encourages joined-up approaches to water resources planning.

Learn how the Environment Agency is supporting abstractors, particularly farmers, through Local Resource Option (LRO) screening studies that identify practical, collaborative solutions to improve water resilience.

Visit the Local Resource Option Water Hub page

The Modelling Behind the National Framework

The National Framework for Water Resources takes a scenario-based approach to model the impacts on public water supply under a range of future demand, climate, and environmental conditions. This approach helps us assess the range of uncertainty in these pressures and estimate the potential range of water supply deficits we may face. By providing an updated view of future water needs, the modelling sets the context for the next round of water company planning (WRMP29).

Explore the WR Modelling Interactive Dashboard to view the modelling outputs and the assumptions behind them.

The figures provided through this analysis underpin the National Framework and are discussed in detail in both the summary and main report. Further information on the modelling and forecasting approach will be available in the Water Resources Modelling Technical Report, to be published in autumn 2025.

Why Water Efficiency Matters and What You Can Do

Everyone has a role to play in using water more carefully and efficiently. Reducing demand benefits society by easing pressure on the environment, lowering energy use for wastewater pumping and treatment, and reducing the need for new supplies to meet growth. In turn, this helps cut emissions, reduce costs, and support a healthier and more sustainable natural environment.

However, tackling demand alone is not enough. Water companies must also continue investing in new assets and resilient infrastructure to meet society’s need for water.

We encourage everyone to be smarter with water.

For practical tips and guidance, visit Waterwise, the UK’s leading authority on water efficiency.


Page last updated: 26 Nov 2025, 10:48 AM