FAQs

In previous years, we have opened for entries in September for the national awards, announcing the winners in April the following year. The awards in the Nations and Regions have then opened soon afterwards with local ceremonies held later in that year. For 2022, we are changing the timing of our Awards for Planning Excellence so that all our ceremonies take place in one calendar year. View the timeline here.

Previously, our awards were synonymous with our region or nation and our names reflected this – e.g. RTPI South West Awards for Planning Excellence or for the nationals it was RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence, and so on. Our new model will simply be known as RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence.

To make things easier for applicants, we now have one single point of entry for all applicants. This means that we will open for entries from across the English Regions, Wales, NI, Scotland and internationally under one RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2022 programme.

Nations and Regions will be positioned firmly at the heart of our marketing and promotion activity with local awards ceremonies will taking place in the Nations and Regions in June/July. Top scoring entries will proceed to the national final on 30 November. We will ensure that our awards are celebrated to the full both locally, nationally and internationally.

We are open for entries from 10 January and close on 11 March for ALL categories, regardless of where you are based or what category you are entering.

Depending on the award category entered, your submission will first go to our regional or national competition for judging. You will be able to select your Nation or Region on your online entry.

The entries in 12 categories will be judged by a local judging panel and those finalists will be announced on 9 May with award ceremonies taking place in June and July.

All top scoring entries will progress as finalists in the national competition where the winners will be awarded at the national ceremony on 30 November.

The finalists for the categories below will also be announced in October and progress through to the national competition:

• In-house Planning Team of the Year
• Planning Consultancy of the Year
• International Award for Planning Excellence

You can view our timeline for all of the important dates.

You can submit now from our Awards for Planning Excellence landing page. 

Entries open on 10 January and close on 11 March.

It's an online process. You can start your entry now and save as many times as you like before finally submitting once you're ready.

The awards are free to enter. 

 

Entries open on 10 January 2022 for everyone (region, nation and cross border). The closing date for submissions is Friday 11 March. 

View our timeline for other important dates.

How does a project or plan meet the timing eligibility criteria?

We are often asked for clarification over the timescales of projects and plans and judges often comment that entries can be too premature to judge.

The eligibility criteria require projects and plans to have been completed in the two years prior to 1 January 2022.  This is to ensure the Award entries are current.  However, we appreciate this timescale needs some explanation.

Formal Planning Process must be completed

No project or plan entry will be judged if it has not been through the complete adoption / approval process i.e., received planning permission or formally adopted by the relevant body.  This could potentially put the RTPI in a position of supporting a scheme which may not ultimately be supported through the statutory process.  The Award judging process does not have the complete information which the statutory process has access to, neither does it undertake the scrutiny and consultation required.  It should therefore not make a judgment in advance of this formal process.

However, there may be an element of the process which is entered before the planning permission is granted.  For example, it may be an exemplary public consultation exercise which is entered – so not the project itself, but the consultation process, or it may be a new type of study or approach which informs the development’s design and of course adds benefits.  Any submission must be very clear on this.

Physical Projects

If your submission is for a physical project (this could be a building, infrastructure, landscaping, a natural environment project, for example) and it has planning permission, it should be substantially complete, if not fully completed and being used.

It is difficult to judge a project which is not completed or being used because we do not know how it will be finally built out or used, or if any amendments or value engineering are undertaken which mean it is not the project you thought was worthy of an award.  The actual outcomes and outputs achieved are very important.

We appreciate the substantial planning input into a project may well have taken place more than two years before a project is completed.  If it is for a masterplan – consider entering this as a plan instead.

Plans

Plans cover a range of entries, they can be a development plan (or part), a masterplan, or a strategy.

They must either have received planning permission or have been adopted (as appropriate to the type of entry).

As with a project, they should be sufficiently established to demonstrate the outcomes you are asking it to be judged against – think about the outcomes being claimed in the entry.  They do not need to be built out (for masterplans) or when the plan or strategy period has ended.

Strategies, for example, are better judged after they have demonstrated how they can be implemented i.e. how they have influenced developments or decisions.  However, it is possible for masterplans or strategies to achieve outcomes without being built out e.g., through their public engagement, their policies for layout for integrating active travel, SuDS, district renewable heating etc. or how they are successfully integrating into existing communities.

With a development plan, you may want to think about an aspect of the plan which is innovative in its approach.

No – these changes mean that we will not be opening later in the year for direct entries ahead of the final. We have the same opening date (10 January) and closing date (11 March) for all.

Now is the time to enter if you wish to be considered for any of our award categories - whether you're entering a scheme from a region or nation, or entering one of the three categories that have not specific geographic border:

• In-house Planning Team of the Year
• Planning Consultancy of the Year
• International Award for Planning Excellence

Entries into these categories will be judged by a national judging panel.

The list of categories will display once you have indicated your region or nation.  Categories fall into three key areas:

People

• Planning Authority of the Year
• Small Planning Consultancy of the Year
• Young Planner of the Year
• Head Planner of the Year (Local Planning Authority)

Plans

• Excellence in Plan Making Practice

Projects

If you are submitting a project, you will be asked to tick which category your project most closely aligns with from the following list:

• Excellence in Planning for a Successful Economy
• Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing
• Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture
• Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment
• Excellence in Planning for Communities (small schemes of 50 or less)
• Excellence in Planning for Communities (large schemes of 50 or more)
• Excellence in Tech within Planning Practice

If you are based in an English Region, you may also wish to enter our Chair’s Award. Chair’s Awards are awarded at the discretion of our regional chairs to celebrate a person or achievement which ties in with the Chair’s key priorities for the year.

Applications are also open for the following categories:

• International Award for Planning Excellence
• In-house Planning Team of the Year
• Planning Consultancy of the Year

These categories have no specific geographic base and will therefore not compete in the Nations and Regions competition. 

These categories will be judged by a national judging panel. Finalists for all 15 categories will be announced in October and awarded on 30 November 2022.   

Yes, there is no limit to the number of entries you can submit. 

This is with the exception of the Planning Consultancy of the Year award, where only one entry is permitted. If your organisation is large, you may wish to submit a project entry too.

Winners across our Nations and Regions will be announced in June/July.

Our national winners will be announced at the national ceremony on 30 November 2022.

Winners will be announced on our social media channels with #RTPIAwards

More important dates can be found on our timeline.

Terms and Conditions

Submissions

• Full submissions must be received by us by Friday 11 March 2022.
• Should your submission be shortlisted, the entrant is invited to attend the Awards presentation ceremony
• The RTPI reserves the right to use any images and logos you submit, for promotional purposes.
• The RTPI reserves the right to share submissions with our members via newsletters and The Planner.
• An entry will presume that there are no restrictions or fees payable for the reproduction of the photographs or any other submission materials.
• The RTPI retains permission to publish all submitted material and particulars of successful entries, including the judges’ reports. This may include online and print publication, and successful entrants may be offered other promotional opportunities.
• Winning and shortlisted entries may feature as case studies in future RTPI work demonstrating best practice and the value of planning.
• Submitted material will be retained by the RTPI and will not be returned.
• The RTPI is not liable for any costs you incur submitting this entry.
• The decisions of the judging panel are final and no correspondence will be entered into before or after the event.
• All information submitted is subject to the above terms and conditions and our Privacy Policy and GDPR Policy. 
• The judges reserve the right to, in agreement with the entrant, vary the category in which the submission is judged from that indicated by the entrant. 

Data Protection

• We have collected information from you, in order to communicate with you about the Awards programme. We may also communicate with you about future events that are of a similar nature. If you no longer wish to receive communication from us regarding events then please let us know and we will remove you from our mailing list.

• As stated in RTPI’s privacy notice, we are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. If you pay by credit or debit card, we will not retain your card details after processing your payment. You will need to resubmit this information for future transactions.

Contact [email protected] or your Regional Co-ordinator or Administrator. Find their details via the Find Your RTPI page.