What Is a Local Planning Authority (LPA)? A Guide for Developers

A local planning authority (LPA) is the council responsible for deciding planning applications in its area and for shaping how land is used and developed. Almost every development, from a single-storey extension to a housing scheme, passes through an LPA at some point, so understanding what your local planning authority is, what it does, and how it weighs up issues such as flood risk and drainage is the first step to a smoother application.

This guide explains what an LPA is, how to find yours, how the application process works, and the growing role that flood risk and sustainable drainage now play in whether permission is granted.

Flood risk and drainage are now among the most common reasons a planning application stalls, and the local planning authority cannot sign either off on its own.

What does LPA stand for, and what is a local planning authority?

LPA stands for local planning authority. It is the public body, almost always a council, that determines planning applications and enforces planning control for a defined area under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The LPA decides whether a proposal may go ahead, refuses it, or grants it subject to conditions.

For most day-to-day applications, your local planning authority is the district, borough or unitary council covering the site. County councils and national park authorities act as the planning authority for particular matters, such as minerals and waste, and national parks handle planning within their boundaries.

What does a local planning authority do?

A local planning authority has four core jobs: it sets local policy, decides applications, enforces planning control, and consults the bodies that have a say in a proposal. In practice that means an LPA:

• Prepares and maintains a Local Plan that sets out where and how development should happen, alongside site allocations and constraints.
• Determines planning applications against that Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
• Issues decisions, attaches planning conditions, and negotiates planning obligations.
• Takes enforcement action against development carried out without permission or in breach of conditions.
• Consults statutory bodies, including the Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority, where a proposal raises issues such as flood risk or surface water drainage.

Every application is judged on its effect on local infrastructure, the environment, and the surrounding community, balanced against the national push for sustainable growth.

How many local planning authorities are there in England?

The number of local planning authorities in England is large, and it is not fixed.

There are more than 300 local planning authorities in England, made up of district, borough and unitary councils plus the national park authorities that handle planning within their boundaries.

The exact figure is shifting as the government's 2026 local government reorganisation merges some councils into larger unitary authorities, so the authority that determines applications in a given area may change over the next few years.

Who is my local planning authority?

In a unitary area, a single council is your local planning authority for almost everything. In a two-tier area, planning splits: the district or borough council decides most planning applications, while the county council acts as the Lead Local Flood Authority for surface water drainage and as the authority for minerals and waste.

That split matters. On many sites you are effectively answering to two bodies at once, and a drainage strategy that satisfies the district's planning officer still has to satisfy the county council as the drainage consultee. If you are unsure which council covers your site, the government-run Planning Portal has a postcode lookup that returns your local planning authority.

How the planning application process works

The planning application process usually runs through five stages, from an early conversation with the LPA to a decision and, if needed, an appeal.

1. Pre-application advice. Many LPAs offer a paid pre-application service where officers flag likely issues, including flood risk and drainage, before you commit to a full submission.
2. Submission. The application is submitted, normally with site plans, a design and access statement, and any technical assessments the site demands, such as a flood risk assessment or drainage strategy.
3. Consultation. Neighbours, statutory consultees and other interested parties are invited to comment during a set period.
4. Decision. A planning officer, or the planning committee for larger or contentious schemes, decides whether the proposal accords with policy and either approves it, approves it with conditions, or refuses it.
5. Appeal or amendment. If the LPA refuses, you can lodge an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate or revise the scheme to address the reasons for refusal.

How local planning authorities handle flood risk and drainage

Flood risk and drainage are now among the most common reasons an application stalls, and an LPA cannot sign these off alone. It leans on two statutory consultees: the Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority.

The Environment Agency is consulted on development in Flood Zones 2 and 3 and on proposals that raise river or coastal flood risk, and its advice on whether a scheme meets national flood policy carries significant weight.

An unresolved Environment Agency objection is one of the surest routes to a refusal.

The Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), created under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, is the county or unitary council responsible for surface water and drainage. It reviews how a scheme manages runoff through Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and can hold up an application until the drainage strategy is right. Water and sewerage companies are also consulted to confirm the network can take any additional flows.

Where a site sits in a higher flood zone, the LPA applies the NPPF's sequential and exception tests, which steer development towards land at lower risk of flooding before allowing it in areas at higher risk. If the consultees raise concerns, developers are often asked to revise the drainage design or produce a more detailed flood risk assessment, and in some cases an unresolved objection leads to refusal.

What the December 2024 NPPF changed for flood risk and SuDS

The version of the NPPF that LPAs now apply was published in December 2024, and it widened the flood and drainage bar in two ways that matter for developers.

First, the flood risk sequential test was expanded so that surface water flooding is explicitly taken into account, not just river and coastal risk. The NPPF also makes clear that the presence of flood mitigation does not, by itself, remove the need for a sequential test where part of a site is at risk. In practice this means more applications now require one. A new exception at paragraph 175 can satisfy the test where a site-specific flood risk assessment shows that no built development, access or escape route would sit in an area at risk of flooding from any source, now or in the future.

Since December 2024, sustainable drainage is expected on all development, proportionate to its scale, not just on major schemes.

That change closes the loophole of schemes sitting just below the major-development threshold to avoid providing drainage. Two related points are worth knowing. The government published refreshed National Standards for SuDS in 2025, but these remain non-statutory in England and are enforced through planning conditions rather than a binding approval body. And despite repeated calls, the government has confirmed it will not commence Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, which would have created SuDS Approval Bodies, choosing instead to strengthen requirements through planning policy. For LPAs, that leaves flood risk and drainage firmly inside the planning system rather than a separate consent.

What happens if your LPA refuses on flood or drainage grounds

If an LPA refuses permission because of flood risk or drainage, you generally have three options: revise the technical work to meet the objection, negotiate a solution with the LPA and its consultees, or appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

Timing has become less forgiving. Under the planning appeals rules that took effect in April 2026, the flood risk and drainage evidence generally needs to be right at the point of the original decision, so leaving it to be fixed on appeal is a weaker position than it once was. Reading the reasons for refusal closely, and addressing the specific technical concern rather than rearguing the principle, is usually what unlocks a resolution.

Working with your local planning authority

Early engagement is the single most reliable way to keep an application on track. Raising flood risk and drainage at the pre-application stage, rather than after a refusal, gives you time to shape the scheme around the consultees' expectations instead of reacting to their objections.

At Unda, we prepare the flood risk assessments and drainage strategies that local planning authorities and their consultees accept, and we help resolve objections where they arise. If you have a site to discuss, our flood risk assessment for planning and sustainable drainage strategy services are the natural place to start, and you are welcome to talk a scheme through before you submit.

Frequently asked questions