Flood Risk Assessment in Leicester

Our team at Unda prepares comprehensive flood risk assessments and drainage strategies for commercial and residential sites across Leicester. A flood risk assessment in Leicester shows your local planning authority that a development will stay safe from flooding for its whole lifetime, without pushing flood risk onto neighbouring land.

Leicester is built along the River Soar and the Grand Union Canal, with a fan of fast-responding brooks draining the suburbs into the valley. We assess every source that matters here — the Soar and its floodplain through the city, the surface water that overwhelms drains after intense rain, the ordinary watercourses the city council maps in its own right, and the groundwater that can rise through the valley deposits — then deal directly with the Environment Agency and Leicester City Council on your behalf. We guide architects, planning consultants, developers, landowners, home buyers and businesses through to a decision, whether the report is needed for planning, a property purchase, a mortgage or insurance, BREEAM, or a surface-water drainage strategy.

Leicester is one of the most closely scrutinised places in England to build near water: the city council maps the flood reach of its ordinary watercourses on top of the national flood zones, so a site that looks clear on the Environment Agency map can still be constrained — and an assessment that misses that detail will not get past the council.

To speak to one of our experienced flood risk consultants about a site in Leicester, call +44 (0) 1293 214444 or request a free, no-obligation quote and we will get back to you within 60 minutes.

Flood risk assessment in Leicester at a glance

• The River Soar runs through the heart of the city. It is a low-gradient lowland river with a broad floodplain that is inundated most years in places, so a heavy rainfall event in the upper catchment becomes a flood peak passing through Leicester a short time later.
• Around 4,700 properties sit behind the River Soar flood scheme. The Environment Agency and Leicester City Council have delivered a three-phase flood risk management scheme through the city since 2013, but a defended site can still sit in a flood zone and still needs an assessment of the residual risk.
• Leicester City Council is its own Lead Local Flood Authority. The city is a unitary authority, separate from Leicestershire County Council, so a development inside the city boundary is assessed by the city council on surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses.
• Ordinary watercourse flood extents are a local planning constraint. Leicester's 2022 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment maps the flood reach of its smaller watercourses as a constraint in its own right, on top of the Environment Agency's national Flood Map for Planning.
• The city's brooks respond in hours, not days. Urban tributaries such as the Saffron, Willow and Braunstone brooks run off hard surfaces fast, producing a sharp, sometimes double-peaked response that leaves very little warning time.

Check flood risk anywhere in Leicester

Leicester is outlined below. Screen any postcode in the city against Environment Agency data for rivers and sea, surface water and the planning flood zones, with a climate outlook to 2125. It is an indicative first pass using our free flood risk map, not a substitute for a site-

Flood risk in Leicester: the River Soar, the canal and the city's brooks

Most of Leicester drains to the River Soar, which flows north through the city alongside the Grand Union Canal before joining the Trent. The Soar carries the main river risk, the suburban brooks bring a fast surface-water and ordinary-watercourse risk, and intense rain overwhelms the city's drains in low-lying neighbourhoods — so a typical site here faces more than one source at once.

The Soar is a lowland river with a low gradient and a wide floodplain, and the navigation and canal works that run with it through the city add structures, weirs and embankments that shape how water moves. Around it, a fan of brooks — the Saffron, Willow, Evington, Bushby, Thurnby, Scraptoft, Melton and Braunstone brooks among them — drains the suburbs off largely impermeable ground. These respond to rainfall in under five hours, which is why parts of Leicester can flood from a summer storm before any river warning is issued, and why reading the right watercourse for a given site is the heart of a credible assessment. Our explainers on the surface water and planning picture and on how accurate flood maps really are set out why a single national map is never enough on a site like this.

A history of flooding in Leicester

These dated events are why the city council scrutinises development near water so closely, and why a flood risk assessment in Leicester has to be evidence-led rather than generic. Each one shaped the defences and the policy a developer now has to design around.

• 1968 — the flood that reshaped the brooks. Severe flooding across the Midlands prompted lasting changes in Leicester, including the large flood storage area built on the Braunstone Brook to hold back runoff before it reaches the built-up valley.
• 2012 — the summer floods. Torrential rain across much of England saw the River Soar and smaller watercourses overflow, with towns and villages along the valley affected and roads closed.
• 2016–17 — Storms Angus and Frank. Days of heavy rain and storms brought widespread flooding to the Soar valley, with the Soar, Trent and Wreake all contributing and properties and roads affected.
• 2021 — Storm Christoph. Prolonged heavy rain produced river and surface water flooding across the area, with Leicester among the places affected.
• 2022 — flash surface water. Summer thunderstorms after a dry spell overwhelmed drainage in parts of the city, damaging property and disrupting transport — a textbook example of the fast pluvial risk the suburbs face.

The River Soar Flood Risk Management Scheme

Since 2013 the Environment Agency and Leicester City Council have worked together to improve the flow of the River Soar through the city and reduce flood risk to around 4,700 properties. The scheme uses green infrastructure and the city's open spaces to store and convey floodwater rather than relying on hard walls alone.

The scheme is a strong defence, but it does not remove the need for a site-specific assessment. The Environment Agency's Flood Map for Planning is drawn as if defences are not there, so a property behind the scheme can still fall in Flood Zone 2 or 3.

A defended site in Leicester is not a site without risk. Planning policy requires the residual risk — what happens if a defence is overtopped or fails — to be assessed over the development's lifetime, including climate change, which a generic desktop report will miss.

Flood risk and planning in Leicester: the council, the SFRA and OWFE

Two kinds of authority set the rules. The Environment Agency leads on the River Soar as a main river. Leicester City Council, as the Lead Local Flood Authority, leads on surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses — and because Leicester is a unitary authority, the city council holds that role within the city boundary in its own right.

Leicester City Council's 2022 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment is the local evidence base, and it does something many authorities do not: it maps ordinary watercourse flood extents (OWFE) as a planning constraint, capturing the flood reach of the smaller brooks that the national maps under-represent. That makes Leicester an unusually granular place to get an assessment right, and it is where a templated report tends to come unstuck. The council also sets out a clear route for applicants — check the flood risk of the site, complete a sequential or exception test where the zone requires it, then prepare and submit the assessment — and the Lead Local Flood Authority is a statutory consultee on surface water drainage for major development.

Your assessment and drainage strategy must satisfy national policy — the NPPF and its Planning Practice Guidance — alongside the local framework, including the city council's local flood risk management strategy and SFRA. Since the 2025 guidance update the risk-based approach formally applies to all sources of flooding, so surface water on the Flood Map for Planning can trigger an assessment even on a Flood Zone 1 site, and critical drainage issues have to be addressed up front.

What your flood risk assessment in Leicester must show

• Every credible source. The Soar, surface water, the relevant ordinary watercourses and their OWFE, groundwater and sewers — assessed together, not in isolation.
• Safe floor levels and access. Finished floor levels set above the modelled flood level with freeboard, and safe access and egress for the development's lifetime.
• No increase in risk elsewhere. Evidence that the scheme does not push flooding onto neighbouring land, with flood modelling where the mapping is not detailed enough.
• A drainage response. A surface-water drainage strategy that follows the SuDS hierarchy and holds runoff within the required discharge rate.

Development and flood risk assessment in Leicester

Leicester is a regeneration city, and the kind of site you bring forward shapes the assessment you need. The right scope from the start is the difference between a clean approval and a drainage or flood-risk objection that holds an application up for months.

• Waterside and riverside regeneration. The 60-hectare Waterside area of brownfield land between the River Soar and the A50 sits in the floodplain, and schemes there typically need finished floor levels, safe access and often additional flood storage built into the design.
• City-centre and brownfield infill. Re-using hard-surfaced sites usually turns on surface water and the SuDS response — demonstrating that redevelopment does not worsen runoff, often with preliminary drainage design at the outline stage.
• Suburban sites near a brook. Plots backing onto an ordinary watercourse such as the Saffron or Evington brook turn on the OWFE mapping and the fast pluvial response rather than the main river.
• Commercial and BREEAM schemes. New commercial space frequently needs the flood and drainage case structured for BREEAM as well as for planning.

Climate change is not optional in a Leicester assessment. The Environment Agency's allowances for higher river flows and heavier rainfall over a development's lifetime — generally 100 years for housing — set the floor levels, the freeboard and how much storage a drainage scheme has to provide.

How Unda helps with flood risk assessment in Leicester

We act as the accurate translation layer between your scheme and the requirements set by the Environment Agency, Leicester City Council and national planning policy. We are experts on the city's flooding, not a generic report mill, and we stay involved past the report to answer objections.

A flood risk assessment in Leicester from Unda assesses every credible source — the Soar, surface water, the relevant ordinary watercourses and their mapped extents, groundwater and sewers — compares modelled flood levels against your proposed floor levels, sets safe access and egress, and recommends mitigation the regulators will accept. We are a CIWEM Business Partner with chartered members, we have completed more than 5,000 assessments since 2014, and a senior consultant signs off every report. Where the council needs it, a surface-water drainage strategy sits alongside the assessment as a separate report so the two cases stay consistent and an objection has nowhere to land.

Flood risk assessments and related reports for every situation in Leicester

People need flood risk work in Leicester for a range of reasons, and we cover all of them. A flood risk assessment, a sequential or exception test and a drainage strategy are three distinct reports: they often travel together in a planning submission, but they answer different questions — is the site safe, should the development be here, and where does the surface water go.

• Flood risk assessment for planning. The site-specific report prepared to satisfy the NPPF, the Environment Agency and Leicester City Council. Groundwater and, where needed, flood modelling are assessed within it rather than as separate reports.
• Flood risk survey for a property purchase. An independent, property-specific survey for buyers and their advisers when a conveyancing search flags flood risk on a Leicester home.
• Flood risk report for insurance. Property-level evidence where premiums have risen, cover has been restricted, or mapped risk looks inconsistent with the building.
• Flood risk assessment for BREEAM. Structured around the BREEAM flood and surface water criteria so a scheme earns its credits without redesign.
• Sequential and exception tests. The locational case required where development is proposed in a higher-risk part of the city.
• Surface-water drainage strategy and SuDS. How runoff is managed to the city council's standards, with discharge of drainage conditions at the detailed stage. Our notes on the four pillars of SuDS explain the approach.

To screen a site yourself before you commission, our free tools cover the ground: the flood risk map, the live river levels map for the Soar, the geology and ground conditions checker for soakaway feasibility, the drainage calculators and the BRE 365 infiltration rate calculator. You can read more about us and our consultants on the about page and our flood risk consultancy overview, or see the full flood risk assessment service.

Leicester flood resources and contacts

The most reliable Leicester flood information comes from the lead authorities. For an immediate threat to life during a flood, always call 999; for a power cut during flooding, call 105.

• Check for flooding in Leicester. Environment Agency live warnings, river levels and maps at check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk; sign up for flood warnings or call Floodline on 0345 988 1188.
• Leicester City Council flooding. Report flooding, find drainage advice and read the flood risk studies at Leicester City Council, or email flooding@leicester.gov.uk.
• Emergency planning. LLR Prepared, the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Resilience Forum, coordinates the response to flooding and other emergencies.
• Beyond the city. For sites in the wider county rather than the city boundary, see our Leicestershire flood risk information.

Flood risk assessment in Leicester: frequently asked questions