Milton Keynes Council has, with the assistance of our partner Risk Management Authorities, prepared a Surface Water Management Plan (SWMP). The SWMP, which covers the entire administrative area of Milton Keynes, looks to understand the causes and effects of surface water flooding and establish a starting point for a long-term preferred strategy and action plan to manage surface water risk in the most cost effective way.

Through an initial risk assessment the SWMP has identified 13 critical drainage catchments (CDCs) which represent areas or catchments across the Borough at greatest risk. Further assessment was then carried out on each CDC to look at potential measures for alleviating the surface water flood risk and options appraisals were prepared to outline the preferred site-specific, and borough wide, measures which are most viable. Utilising this information, a long-term action plan has then been established to outline the actions required to implement the preferred options for each CDC.

The final report and its associated appendices can be viewed at the following links:

• Milton Keynes Surface Water Management Plan Report 
• Milton Keynes SWMP Appendix A (Figures & Maps) 
• Milton Keynes SWMP Appendix B (Critical Drainage Catchment Maps) 
• Milton Keynes SWMP Appendix C (Options Assessment Tables) 
• Milton Keynes SWMP Appendix D (Combined Action Plan) 

The Milton Keynes Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) was adopted in March 2016.

The adopted LFRMS can be viewed at:

• Milton Keynes Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (2016) 

An associated document can be viewed at:

• Milton Keynes Strategic Environmental Assessment, Environmental Report (February 2016)

What is the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy?

The Flood and Water Management Act (2010), gives unitary and county councils responsibilities for leading and co-ordinating the management of local flood risk, in their role as Lead Local Flood Authority. This includes a statutory duty to develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for the management of local flood risk. To this end, Milton Keynes Council in partnership with consultants AECOM and other local flood risk management authorities and partners; have prepared the Draft Milton Keynes LFRMS.

The LFRMS sets out the Council's approach to managing flood risk from local sources in both the short and long term, outlining proposals for sustainable actions that will help to manage the risk in a way that delivers the greatest benefits to the residents, businesses and environment of Milton Keynes. It also outlines how Milton Keynes Council will work with others to manage all sources of flooding within the borough and neighbouring catchments. The Strategy is accompanied by an Action Plan setting out how to deliver the objectives of the Strategy over the next six years and a Strategic Environmental Assessment assessing the impacts of the Strategy on the Environment.

The Milton Keynes City Council - Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment 2024  is an evidence-based document that provides a comprehensive and robust evidence base on flood risk issues that was produced to assist in the preparation of the MK City Plan and any associated Planning Policy documents. 

The main document including appendices can be viewed at: Milton Keynes City Council - Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment 2024

You can also view the appendices containing all mapped data independently by using the following links:

• Appendix A- Historic Flooding 
• Appendix B- Watercourses
• Appendix C- Flood Zones
• Appendix D- Fluvial climate change
• Appendix E- RoFSW
• Appendix F- RoFSW climate change 
• Appendix G- Groundwater flooding
• Appendix H- Reservoir flooding
• Appendix I- Flood Defences
• Appendix J- Flood Warning and Alerts
• Appendix K- Data Sources
• Appendix L- User Guide
• Appendix M- Flood Risk Summary
• Appendix N- Site Screening
• Appendix O- Sequential Test Methodology
• Appendix P- Critical Drainage Catchments
• Appendix Q- Surface Water Flood Zones 

It should be noted that whilst the maps presented here were produced using the most up-to-date information at the time of production, new information and mapping often becomes available.  It is therefore recommended that when preparing an application for development, as well as utilising the SFRA maps, the Environment Agency's "Flood Map for Planning (Rivers and Sea)" and "Updated Flood Map for Surface Water" should also be consulted.

Integrated Water Management study was commissioned by Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC) to form part of comprehensive and robust evidence base for the preparation of the MK City Plan 2050 to aid in coordinating development and management of water to help in the sustainable building of developments and inform current decision-making processes where appropriate

Part 1 of the report has been completed and sets out how Milton Keynes is expected to grow up to 2050 and agrees a set of objectives that can be used in assessing future water management options.  A baseline is presented showing Milton Keynes in the context of the wider catchment and presenting information on the status of water resources, wastewater infrastructure and water quality. An approach to quantifying integrated water management benefits was presented and a preliminary scoring of identified options undertaken. The growth information  will be updated in Part 2 order to allow a revised estimate of water demand in Milton Keynes. This will be used within an updated water balance, and within all the assessments conducted in Stage 2.

Part 1 of the report  can be viewed at: Milton Keynes- Integrated Water Management Study Phase 1 June 2024

Previous work that was commissioned  as Part of Plan:MK was the Water Cycle Study (2018) which assessed the planned growth as proposed in Plan:MK. This report can be viewed here: Milton Keynes Water Cycle Study.