RTPI Cymru Planifesto
Who We Are
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the largest professional body for town planners in the UK and Europe and represents around 27,000 members in over 80 countries worldwide, with approximately 1,300 members in Wales. The Institute has been shaping planning policy and raising professional standards for over 100 years and is the only body in the UK to confer Chartered status to planners, the highest professional qualification. The RTPI champions the power of planning in creating prosperous places and vibrant communities.
Our Planifesto Vision
Our vision is to empower planners to deliver positive impact, creating healthy, well connected, inclusive and sustainable places and communities.
To achieve this we need a thriving and resilient Welsh planning system that is fully resourced, plan-led, responsive, effective and accessible.
A thriving and resilient Welsh planning system that delivers
Planners balance economic, environmental, societal and cultural demands to meet the needs of current and future generations. Planners are drivers of positive change. A properly resourced planning system is vital to deliver your priorities.
Our key asks are for:
- An ambitious and agile Plan-led system that provides certainty for all stakeholders.
- Thriving communities in well designed places with access to quality homes and infrastructure.
- Joined up action to address the climate and nature emergencies.
An ambitious and agile Plan-led system that provides certainty for all stakeholders
- Recognise that a well-resourced planning system is a key component for a thriving Welsh economy.
- Encourage meaningful engagement in plan-making and placemaking by strengthening community awareness of the planning system.
- Ensure that decisions are based on up-to-date and proportionate adopted development plans, that provide certainty to investors and communities, strengthen the Welsh language, create healthy places and meet the needs of both rural and urban communities.
- Complete the work on codification of planning legislation, started by the Planning (Wales) Bill 2025.
- Prioritise tackling the housing crisis as a cross-Government joined-up approach to ensure everyone can access a suitable, safe and affordable home. Housing of all tenures is critical infrastructure that is essential to deliver prosperity, growth and social and cultural well-being across Wales.
- Reintroduce housing targets, monitor delivery and implement appropriate intervention when targets are not being met.
- Create a national arm’s length delivery body to assemble land and co-ordinate development. Ensure that land use, transport and infrastructure are aligned in terms of planning, funding and delivery.
- Commit to a long-term and holistic approach to climate adaption and mitigation, that is reflected in planning and investment decisions on renewable energy, biodiversity enhancement and adaption to flood risk.
- Provide a national or regional approach to improving water quality, clarifying what mitigation is acceptable to NRW, how it will be funded, delivered and managed in the long term.
- Regulate low/net zero carbon development in the most effective way by updating Building Regulations. This will simplify plan-making and ensure consistency and certainty for developers.
A commitment to invest
All of the above asks must be accompanied by a commitment to invest in planning and planners to create a thriving and resilient planning system.
- Invest in planning as an essential public service to deliver your priorities
- Invest in skills and training including digital planning to make the best decisions
- Establish an apprenticeship scheme and support for bursaries to grow the pipeline of planners
- Create a statutory Chief Planner at the top table of every Local Planning Authority to champion planning in all decisions
Contact us
If you have any further questions about our Planifesto for the 2026 Senedd elections, please don't hesitate to contact us here!