Flood: Who is responsible

Our responsibilities

London Borough of Barnet (LBB) is the Lead Local Flood Authority. We have responsibilities given to us by the Flood and Water Management Act 2010

We are responsible for managing local flood risks from surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses. However, the Environment Agency maintains a national overview and lead on flood risk from main rivers, coasts and reservoirs.

We are responsible for:

• Ordinary watercourses
• Surface water management
• Investigating incidents of local flooding
• Maintaining a flood asset register.

As a Lead Local Flood Authority, we prepare (and maintain) plans and strategies to manage flood risk.

Local flood risk management strategy and other key strategic documents•

• Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) - 2023-29 (PDF, 3 MB)
• LFRMS Action Plan (PDF, 452 KB)
• Surface Water Management Plans - Volume 1 (PDF, 4.3 MB)
• Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA)
  • PFRA London Borough of Barnet 2017 (PDF, 137 KB)
• Thames River Basin District Flood Risk Management Plan 2021 to 2027
• West London Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) 

Your responsibilities

If you own land or a property that has a watercourse running through it or you live next to a watercourse you are a 'riparian owner'. Responsibilities of a Riparian owner.

Further information and advice is available about owning a watercourse on the gov.uk website.

If you wish to carry out any temporary or permanent works in or next to a watercourse you will need consent. Visit our ordinary watercourse management webpage for more information.

Don't dump rubbish into ditches as this may end up blocking trash screens and cause flooding.

Don't sweep rubbish and leaves into gullies/drains - this blocks them. 

If any construction works are ongoing, store the materials properly. Inappropriate storage of construction materials can block the gullies or nearby watercourses / ditches.

Report pollution in or near a watercourse to the Environment Agency on 0800 807060.

If you notice sewer flooding with foul smell (having sewage solids, toilet debris etc.)  inside/outside your property or public place (road, pavements, path, parks etc, sometimes causing pollution to a river/stream), you should report this to Thames Water on 0800 316 9800 (24hour service). If the phone lines are busy, this can be reported via Thames Water blockage reporting tool alternatively filling the sewer flooding questionnaire. It is very important that these are reported to Thames Water and appropriate reference numbers are stored for future reference.