The Welsh Government has begun a major revision of Future Wales, the National Development Framework for Wales. A national conversation, Call for Evidence and consultation on how the public will be involved opened on 19 August 2026 and run until 20 November 2026.
This is an early evidence-gathering stage, not a consultation on a finished replacement plan. That makes it a particularly useful moment for councils, communities, landowners, developers and infrastructure providers to influence the issues and choices before the national strategy begins to settle.
Need help with a planning application?
Planning Geek isn’t just a reference site - preparing and submitting planning applications is what we do. If you’d like a hand with an application, an appeal or any other planning matter, we’d be glad to help.
What has the Welsh Government opened?
The revision process currently has three connected elements:
- A Call for Evidence about the issues the revised framework should address
- A National Conversation Engagement Plan
- A draft Statement of Public Participation explaining how and when people will be involved
The Future Wales revision hub brings the consultation material together. All three elements opened on 19 August and comments are invited by 20 November 2026.
The Statement of Public Participation is about the process: who will be involved, at what stages and by what methods. The Call for Evidence is about the substance: the data, experience and policy issues which should shape the new national framework.
What is Future Wales?
Future Wales is the current National Development Framework and the highest tier of the statutory development plan system in Wales. The present plan, Future Wales – The National Plan 2040, was adopted in 2021.
It provides the national spatial strategy and a framework for:
- Strategic Development Plans
- Local Development Plans
- Development management decisions
- Decisions on Significant Infrastructure Projects
- National and regional investment priorities
For readers more familiar with the English system, Future Wales is not simply a Welsh version of the NPPF. It is itself part of the development plan framework and contains spatial choices and national policies which sit above regional and local plans.
Planning Geek’s guide to the development plan explains why adopted plan policy is the starting point for planning decisions.
Why is the Future Wales major revision taking place?
The revised framework will look forward to 2050, extending the horizon beyond the current plan’s 2040 end date. A major revision allows the Welsh Government to reconsider the national spatial strategy rather than merely updating a few policies.
Since the current plan was prepared, Wales has seen changes in housing need, infrastructure delivery, energy policy, climate evidence, economic conditions, transport priorities, digital connectivity and the way people live and work.
The Welsh Government also wants a more community-centred approach which works with local authorities and regional partners, reduces duplication and gives communities a clearer role in national, regional and local choices.
What themes are being considered?
The national conversation is deliberately broad. The published themes include:
- Wales in 2050 and what future generations should inherit
- Homes, communities and community infrastructure
- Economic growth, jobs, investment and prosperity
- Climate change, nature and biodiversity
- Transport, movement and digital connectivity
- Welsh language, culture and nationhood
- Health, wellbeing and inequality
Energy and strategic infrastructure cut across several of those themes. So does the relationship between growth, environmental limits, resilience and the ability of places to support new homes and employment.
What evidence is useful?
The Call for Evidence is not limited to academic reports. Useful material may include:
- Demographic and housing-market evidence
- Infrastructure capacity and investment plans
- Transport and travel-to-work data
- Energy network and renewable energy evidence
- Flooding, coastal change and climate-risk information
- Biodiversity and ecosystem evidence
- Welsh-language impact evidence
- Site-delivery experience and market evidence
- Examples of where the present framework works well or creates difficulty
The best submissions will connect evidence to a national or regional spatial choice. Merely saying that a particular site should be developed is unlikely to be as persuasive as explaining the need it meets, the infrastructure it relies upon and why the issue cannot sensibly be resolved through a single Local Development Plan.
Why landowners and promoters should engage now
Once a replacement framework reaches a settled draft, much of the debate will be about defending or opposing policies already written. The current stage is earlier and potentially more influential.
A landowner, developer or infrastructure promoter can use the evidence stage to demonstrate:
- Where strategic growth could be accommodated sustainably
- What transport, water, energy or digital investment is required
- Why a national or regional designation needs review
- How a proposal contributes to housing, employment or energy objectives
- Which delivery barrier needs a national rather than local response
This is not a promise that a site will appear in the revised plan. It is an opportunity to make sure the evidence base and range of reasonable spatial choices are not built without the relevant information.
Why councils and communities should take part
The National Development Framework influences more than large development sites. It can shape priorities for town centres, rural areas, public services, renewable energy, transport corridors, natural infrastructure and investment.
Local planning authorities need the eventual framework to work alongside Strategic Development Plans and Local Development Plans. Communities may hold evidence about infrastructure, Welsh-language sensitivity, local service capacity, flooding, landscape and the way places function which national datasets do not capture.
The participation consultation is therefore important in its own right. A sound plan needs a sound process for involving the people who will use and live with it.
The adopted plan still applies
No replacement Future Wales, preferred spatial strategy or new policy map has been published at this stage. The adopted Future Wales 2040 remains in force until it is replaced.
Early evidence and engagement material may indicate the questions being explored, but it does not displace the adopted development plan in a current planning application. Decision-makers must distinguish between the existing statutory framework and ideas being tested for the next one.
What happens next?
The present consultation is an early stage of an approximately four-year revision process. After the evidence and engagement stage, the Welsh Government will develop the evidence base, consider spatial choices, prepare assessments and carry out further participation and consultation as the framework takes shape.
The draft Statement of Public Participation sets out later opportunities to comment, including consultation on the emerging framework and its integrated sustainability appraisal. The final revised National Development Framework is expected in winter 2029/30.
That timetable means there will be further formal stages, but it also underlines why early evidence matters. Problems omitted from the evidence base are much harder to insert once a national strategy has acquired momentum.
How to take part
The consultation runs from 19 August to 20 November 2026. The Welsh Government’s revision hub provides the online response form, downloadable response material and information about engagement events.
Anyone responding should make clear whether the submission addresses participation, evidence for the framework, or both. Where possible, include the source, date, geographical coverage and limitations of the evidence so that it can be properly assessed.
Published: 25th August 2026 — Future Wales major revision
