Summary
Environment Agency flood data has different products for different decisions. Flood Zones for planning help with planning applications and flood risk assessment requirements. NaFRA2 supports long term flood risk understanding and should be treated as a risk signal, not a property level guarantee.
Definition
Flood Zones for planning show land at present day risk of flooding from rivers and the sea, ignoring the benefits of flood defences, and are used to support planning decisions in England. NaFRA2 is the Environment Agency’s updated national flood risk assessment, used to improve long term flood risk information for rivers, sea and surface water. For buyer area comparison, Flood Zones can help identify planning sensitivity and broad risk context, while NaFRA2 based long term risk information can help identify whether flood risk should be a red line, an insurance check or a specialist survey question. Always check the exact property and do not infer individual property risk from broad area layers alone.