Flood Risk Assessment in Middlesbrough

A flood risk assessment in Middlesbrough usually has more to say about the becks and the drains than about the Tees. Five small rivers run north through the town to the tidal estuary, much of their length straightened, walled in or culverted, and they back up when a high tide holds their outfalls shut. Heavy rain on the town's mudstone and clay adds surface water that the ground barely absorbs. Planning officers, lenders and insurers each ask something different of a Middlesbrough site, and our flood risk consultants answer them with flood risk assessments, sequential and exception tests and surface water drainage strategies.

On this page Middlesbrough means the town's built-up area as the Office for National Statistics maps it. That runs from Middlehaven and the town centre by the river south through Linthorpe, Acklam, North Ormesby and Berwick Hills to Marton, Coulby Newham, Hemlington and Nunthorpe. It also takes in Ormesby, which belongs to Redcar and Cleveland, and the industrial land across the Tees towards Port Clarence. The postcode districts are TS1 to TS5, TS7 and TS8. Stainton village and the fields along the borough's southern edge lie outside the outline, though Middlesbrough Council's policies and flood evidence cover them in the same way.

When it launched the becks' warning service, the Environment Agency put more than 1,600 properties at risk from the Middlesbrough Becks alone, and warned that they can rise quickly, sometimes leaving little or no time to prepare.

To talk through a Middlesbrough site with one of our flood risk consultants, call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk.

Five becks and a tidal river: where Middlesbrough's floodwater comes from

Most flooding in Middlesbrough starts on the becks and in the drains rather than on the Tees. The Environment Agency groups Marton West, Newham, Middle, Ormesby and Spencer Becks as the Middlesbrough Becks, all of them main rivers that rise on higher ground to the south. They cross the town in channels that, in the council's words, have been straightened, confined or culverted over long reaches, and they are tide-locked where they meet the estuary. Blue Bell Beck drains the western edge separately.

Where a beck runs in a culvert, the culvert becomes part of the flood risk. The council's 2025 flood study asks a site-specific assessment to model a blocked culvert as well as a breached or overtopped defence, and the emerging Local Plan would stop new development culverting a watercourse or building over one. Our explainer on culverts, ownership and consent covers who looks after a culverted reach that runs under a site.

Screening a postcode between Middlehaven and Nunthorpe

Type a Middlesbrough postcode into the map below to screen it against Environment Agency data for rivers and the sea, surface water and reservoirs, or open our full flood risk map for anywhere in England. The coral outline is the built-up area, which is why Ormesby and the riverside industry across the Tees fall inside it and Stainton village does not. A street that shows clear for rivers and the sea can still lie on a surface water flow path, and in Middlesbrough that is the commoner finding.

Rain on clay: surface water, groundwater, sewers and Hemlington Lake

The council's Local Flood Risk Management Strategy names surface water, often combined with the smaller watercourses, as the main local source of flooding. Most of the borough sits on Mercia Mudstone under glacial lake deposits to the north and till to the south, and the strategy notes that these clays do not allow much infiltration. Rain that cannot soak away runs to the becks and the sewers, which can back up together when the tide is high.

• Where the 2025 study puts high surface water risk. North Ormesby, Brambles and Thorntree, Longlands and Beechwood, Park End and Beckfield, Berwick Hills and Nunthorpe. The 2018 study had already named Valley Road, Linthorpe, Coulby Newham and Blue Bell Beck as hotspots.
• Groundwater close to the surface. JBA's groundwater emergence map puts levels at or within half a metre of the ground in a 1-in-100 event across much of Acklam and Park End and Beckfield, with parts of Ladgate, Kader and Longlands and Beechwood in the same bands.
• Sewers short of capacity. Northumbrian Water's data flags isolated 100 m squares at risk of sewer flooding in Stainton, Marton, Nunthorpe and Ormesby, and earlier studies recorded sewer flooding on Moortown Road, Sunningdale Road and Holbeck Avenue.
• One reservoir that matters. Hemlington Lake, run by the Environment Agency, is the only large raised reservoir whose failure could reach the borough; the mapped flooding stays mostly on the watercourse and its banks through Hemlington and Trimdon.

None of these sources appears on the Flood Map for Planning, which shows rivers and the sea only, so many Flood Zone 1 sites in Middlesbrough are assessed for surface water alone. Our guide to surface water flooding and planning explains how the surface water map is read for an application.

Dated floods on the Middlesbrough Becks, from 2000 to the Albert Park scheme

The council's records begin in earnest with the autumn of 2000, when record sustained rain overwhelmed the becks and the surface and foul sewers across the town. Since then most of the flooding has come from short, intense summer storms, and the gauges installed along the becks have set their own records.

1. 2000 and 2002. Marton West Beck surcharged and overtopped, flooding 230 properties on Marton Road, Talbot Street, Park Vale Road, St Johns Gate and Borough Road, 75 on Valley Road and Aspen Drive and 15 around Glendale Road. More than 20,000 m³ of storm storage was later built into Albert Park Lake.
2. Autumn 2000. Ormesby Beck flooded houses on Kentmere Road, and Middle Beck, held back by highway culverts, flooded Courtney Walk and Kelfield Avenue.
3. 2002 to 2009. Summer storms flooded about 40 locations in 2002, up to 50 in an August 2003 thunderstorm and up to 50 again in July 2009. Ormesby Beck put 200 to 270 mm of water into homes on Stanhope Gardens and Kentmere Road in August 2008; the beck was then realigned and the houses given property-level protection.
4. 2012. Marton West Beck reached 2.33 m at the Albert Park gauge on 25 November 2012, still the highest reading there. The council logged flash floods in Berwick Hills, Acklam, Nunthorpe, Pallister, Park End and Thorntree that year.
5. 6 December 2013. Flooding from main rivers was recorded at Middlehaven, on the riverside, as the North Sea tidal surge of 5 and 6 December passed down the east coast.
6. 2015. The Environment Agency launched a free flood warning service for the Middlesbrough Becks, registering landlines in the warning areas automatically.
7. 21 November 2016. Ormesby Beck reached 0.83 m at Ormesby Hall, its highest on record, and the council recorded flash flooding from watercourses in Marton and Clairville.
8. 3 November 2019. The gauge at the Albert Park footbridge on Marton West Beck recorded 1.04 m, its highest level.
9. 2020 to 2021. The £4.8 million Marton West Beck scheme was built: storage on Newham Beck upstream, a longer trash screen, stone-clad walls and surface water storage at Albert Park, and concrete walls on Borough Road. Finished in December 2021, it better protects about 500 homes and businesses in central Middlesbrough.

Two Environment Agency warning areas cover the becks: Middlesbrough Becks at Middlesbrough for properties along all five, and lower lying parts of Middlesbrough for Ormesby High Street and South Bank Road at Cargo Fleet. The Albert Park gauge on Marton West Beck and the Ormesby Hall gauge on Ormesby Beck appear with the Tees gauges on our live river levels map.

Middlehaven and the riverside: the tidal Tees below the barrage

Downstream of the Tees Barrage at Stockton, opened in 1995, the river is tidal, and the 2025 SFRA takes the barrage as the tidal limit. Middlehaven, the old dock and the riverside industry along Middlesbrough's northern edge are where the estuary meets the town, and the Flood Map for Planning shows Flood Zone 3 along the Tees there.

• Warnings on the estuary. Tidal River Tees is a flood alert for low land below the barrage in Middlesbrough and Billingham, and Tees estuary at Portrack, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough is a warning area that includes commercial units on Vulcan Street, Commercial Street and Dock Street. The River Tees gauge at Tees Dock has recorded 4.09 m.
• Defences across the water. On the north bank, the Port Clarence and Greatham South scheme, finished in 2018 for almost £16 million, reduces flood risk to 350 homes and 32 businesses at Port Clarence and the Seal Sands complex.
• Sea level to 2125. For tidal sites in the Northumbria river basin district, the Environment Agency allows for 1.03 m of sea level rise between 2000 and 2125 on its higher central estimate and 1.43 m on the upper end.
• Defences and the planning map. Land behind a wall or embankment keeps its flood zone on the planning map. An assessment therefore sets out the residual flood risk if the defence is overtopped or breached, or if a beck outfall is shut by the tide while the beck is high.

Riverside schemes have one drainage option most of the town lacks. The Tees Valley drainage standards accept uncontrolled discharge only into coastal or estuarine water, and the Publication Local Plan notes that outfalls to the tidal Tees need not meet the usual peak flow and volume limits. Such an outfall may still need consents from the Environment Agency and the Marine Management Organisation, and scour protection where it meets the river. Our River Tees page follows the river from Cross Fell to Teesmouth.

What the 2025 flood study found on the plan's development sites

Middlesbrough Council commissioned JBA Consulting to update its Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, published in March 2025 as evidence for the new Local Plan. It screened the 25 sites proposed for allocation, and 12 alternatives, against rivers, the tide, surface water and climate change.

• Eight of the 25. Recommended for no built development unless it can stay out of the risk areas, because part of each site lies in the functional floodplain or would do with climate change.
• Sixteen of the 25. Sent for a Level 2 study before allocation, fifteen of them to confirm their surface water risk; the exception test may follow.
• One site. Cleared to proceed on flood risk grounds without any further flood work.
• Cargo Fleet. Between the draft and the Publication plan, the employment allocation at Cargo Fleet was dropped because of its high flood risk; the lower becks warning area takes in South Bank Road there.

The study also records the climate change allowances an assessment here starts from. They differ by source, so a site on a beck, a site on the estuary and a drainage strategy each use a different line of the table. Our note on climate change allowances explains which applies when.

Policy NE10 and the Tees Valley drainage standards

Middlesbrough Council is the local planning authority and the Lead Local Flood Authority, so one council decides an application and advises on its surface water drainage, while the Environment Agency advises on the Tees and the becks, all of which are main rivers. Ormesby is the exception on the map: it lies in Redcar and Cleveland, whose council handles applications there.

The new Middlesbrough Local Plan 2022 to 2041 is at independent examination, with the inspectors' matters and questions issued in January 2026, and the Environment Agency has agreed a statement with the council that the plan is sound. Its flood policy, NE10 Flood Risk and Water Management, asks proposals to:

• Take the sequential approach. Steer development to the lowest-risk land, and pass the sequential test, and the exception test where it applies, in Flood Zones 2 and 3.
• Leave watercourses open. No culverting of a watercourse and no building over one, with existing culverts and hard engineering removed where possible.
• Stay out of Flood Zone 3b. Functional floodplain only for essential infrastructure that passes the exception test, or for water-compatible uses, without impeding flow or losing storage.
• Put natural SuDS first. Sustainable drainage on all major development (10 or more homes, or 1,000 m² of floorspace), with underground tanks only where ponds, swales and wetlands are not technically feasible, and maintenance arranged for the scheme's lifetime.

The plan's supporting text expects a site-specific assessment for all development, including minor schemes and changes of use, in Flood Zones 2, 3 and 3b; on Flood Zone 1 sites of a hectare or more; in areas with critical drainage problems; and on Flood Zone 1 land the SFRA shows at increased risk over a development's lifetime. Until the plan is adopted, decisions also draw on the Core Strategy of 2008, the Regeneration DPD of 2009 and the Housing Local Plan of 2014.

Drainage is judged against the Tees Valley Authorities Local Standards for Sustainable Drainage, shared by the five Tees Valley councils since July 2017. They limit discharge to the greenfield mean annual flow, Qbar, for every storm up to 1 in 100, set a 5 l/s minimum for small sites, and treat previously developed land as if it were greenfield. On Middlesbrough's clay a soakaway rarely works, so most schemes discharge at that rate to a beck or a sewer, with the storage that implies; infiltration testing still settles whether a soakaway can be ruled out.

Nationally, flood risk sits in chapter 18 of the NPPF of August 2026. Policy F4 sets when a site needs an assessment, F5 and F6 hold the sequential and exception tests, and F8 expects every scheme to meet the 2025 National Standards for sustainable drainage. Where surface water is a site's only risk and the site can be shown to be safe, F5 can exempt it from the sequential test. That suits a town where surface water is the main local source, and our note on the surface water exemption sets out the conditions.

From Middlehaven to Nunthorpe: when a flood risk assessment in Middlesbrough is needed

One is needed for any proposal in Flood Zone 2 or 3, for sites of a hectare or more, and wherever the SFRA or the surface water map flags a risk. In Middlesbrough that last test brings many Flood Zone 1 plots near the becks into scope. The table shows how typical schemes fall.

Our guide to flood risk assessments for HMO conversions covers the change-of-use case in more detail. Housing on a windfall site in Flood Zone 2 or 3 also has to pass the sequential test, which the 2025 SFRA expects the applicant to evidence for sites the plan does not allocate.

What our consultants prepare for Middlesbrough's becks, riverside and estates

A buyer on Marton Road, a developer at Middlehaven and a landowner with a field near Nunthorpe each need a different report. Our consultants are chartered, Unda is a CIWEM Business Partner, and a senior consultant signs off each report before it is issued.

• Applications on the becks and the riverside. Schemes in the beck corridors or by the Tees need a flood risk assessment for planning that answers Policy NE10 and the 2025 SFRA, or Redcar and Cleveland's policies for a site in Ormesby.
• Beck, tide and rain together. A flood risk assessment weighs river, tidal, surface water, groundwater and sewer risk on one site, which is what most Middlesbrough sites present.
• Before exchange. Lenders ask about homes along Marton West Beck and in the beck warning areas, and a flood risk survey for property purchase answers for the building being bought.
• Housing in Flood Zones 2 and 3. Windfall homes at Middlehaven or beside the becks need the sequential and exception test before the council can weigh the flood evidence.
• SuDS on major schemes. NE10 requires sustainable drainage on every major development, so drainage strategy evidence goes in with the application.
• Qbar on a clay subsoil. A surface water drainage strategy holds runoff to greenfield Qbar for every storm to 1 in 100, usually with storage, because the ground rarely takes infiltration.
• After the permission. Where a Middlesbrough consent comes with a drainage condition, discharge of drainage conditions supplies the detail, levels and maintenance plan the council asks for.
• Culverts without detailed levels. The SFRA relied on proxies for Ormesby, Middle and Spencer Becks where climate change modelling did not exist, and asks for culvert blockage to be modelled, so a site may need its own flood modelling.
• Becks that rise quickly. The Environment Agency warns that the becks can leave little time to prepare; a flood warning and evacuation plan sets out how a site uses the Middlesbrough Becks warnings and where people go.
• Cover near the becks. With more than 1,600 properties mapped at risk from the becks, a flood risk assessment for insurance gives an insurer evidence for one property.
• High groundwater in Acklam. Where the emergence map puts groundwater near the surface, as in Acklam and Park End and Beckfield, a groundwater flood risk assessment tests basements and below-ground storage.
• Riverside units and land. Commercial premises on Vulcan Street, Commercial Street and Dock Street sit in a tidal warning area, and flood risk due diligence sets that out before a lease or purchase.
• Keeping a business open. For an occupier on Vulcan Street or Dock Street, or beside Ormesby Beck, a business continuity flood risk assessment plans for warnings, access and recovery.
• New commercial space. The 2025 SFRA screened five employment sites, three with land in Flood Zone 3; new buildings there can use a BREEAM flood risk assessment for the Pol 03 credits.
• Testing a site early. With 16 of the plan's 25 proposed allocations sent for a Level 2 study, a flood risk feasibility study shows early whether a layout and its access can work.

Council, Agency and water company: who answers for flooding in Middlesbrough

When floodwater threatens anyone's safety, 999 is the number; 105 reports a power cut. Responsibility for everything else is shared out as the table shows.

Upstream, the Tees passes Darlington and, above it, the dales of County Durham. Middlesbrough lies in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, and our Yorkshire page covers the wider county; for other places, see the full list of areas.

Questions about Middlesbrough sites, floods and planning

Unda Consulting Limited prepares flood risk assessments, sequential and exception tests and drainage strategies for sites across Middlesbrough, from riverside plots at Middlehaven to new homes in Nunthorpe and Coulby Newham. To discuss a site, call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk.