The Flood Map for Planning is the Environment Agency’s official map of flood zones in England. Every council in England uses it when it decides planning applications, and it’s the map most people mean when they ask ‘what flood zone am I in?’. Flood Checker reads the same zones, so a free postcode check here gives the same answer as the map.
What the map shows
The map shades land by its chance of flooding from rivers and the sea in any year:
- Flood Zone 3 (darker shading) – a 1% (1 in 100) or greater chance from rivers, or 0.5% (1 in 200) or greater from the sea.
- Flood Zone 2 (lighter shading) – between 0.1% and 1% from rivers, or between 0.1% and 0.5% from the sea.
- Flood Zone 1 (no shading) – less than a 0.1% (1 in 1,000) chance. Most of England is in Zone 1.
Zone 2 is drawn as the outer edge of the more extreme flood, so Zone 3 always sits inside it. The map also marks main flood defences and areas that benefit from them, but the zones themselves are drawn as if the defences weren’t there.
How to read it for one property
- Start with the postcode. Check it free on Flood Checker to see the zone at and around the postcode, and whether a higher zone starts nearby.
- Then zoom to the building. A postcode can cover a whole street. On the Environment Agency’s map, find the house itself: if the edge of a zone runs close to it, the building and the garden can be in different zones.
- Note which zone touches the building. For planning, what matters is the zone the site is in, including any part of it.
On the Environment Agency’s service you can also draw your site boundary and download a free summary PDF of the map for that site, which is useful for a planning application.
Who uses it, and for what
- Councils use it to steer new homes away from Zones 2 and 3 (the ‘sequential test’) and to decide when a flood risk assessment is needed.
- Homeowners planning an extension in Zone 2 or 3 normally need a short flood risk assessment with the application. See extending a home in Flood Zones 2 and 3.
- Buyers, lenders and insurers look at it as a first signal, though insurers rely mainly on their own flood models.
What it leaves out
- Flood defences. The zones show where water could reach without defences. The government’s long-term flood risk service takes defences into account, so the two can disagree – see flood zones vs long-term flood risk.
- Surface water. Flooding from heavy rain is the most common kind in England and isn’t part of Zones 2 and 3. Our guide to surface water flooding explains how to check it.
- Groundwater, sewers and reservoirs. These are mapped separately, or not at all.
- Your building. The map doesn’t know floor levels, past flooding or flood protection.
The Flood Map for Planning answers one question well: how likely is this land to flood from rivers or the sea, ignoring defences? For a full picture of a home, check the other sources too – or get a full property report, which puts them together for one address.
How up to date is it?
The Environment Agency updates the map as it improves its flood modelling, and republishes it as open data. In 2025 it rebuilt the flood zones from its new national flood risk assessment and added a layer showing how Zones 2 and 3 could grow with climate change. Flood Checker refreshes its copy of the zones from the government’s open data, so its answer matches the current map.
Last reviewed . This guide is general information about England, not legal, financial or insurance advice. Check the Environment Agency’s own services and speak to a professional before making decisions about a specific property.
