Awards for Planning Excellence 2025

Celebrating Planning Excellence

Enter now

The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2025 showcase and celebrate the best plans, people and projects.
Now in its 48th year, our coveted awards recognise and highlight the positive contribution planning professionals make in the communities we serve around the world.

Here’s how to enter:

• Select your best work completed between 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2024. For Young Planners, choose your best achievements over recent years.
• Choose the best category to showcase your work.
• Create your account on our entry platform. Don’t worry, you can edit your entry at any time before the closing date.
• Familiarise yourself with the judging criteria.
• Read our ‘How to win’ page for handy hints and tips on how to draft a strong entry.
• Complete and submit your entry along with some great images.

What's new for 2025?

• Check out the new criteria specifically tailored to each category so you can easily find the best category to enter your plan, project or the people in your team.
  
  
• We have updated our entry eligibility for the people categories, and we now have three consultancy category options:
  • If you have 1-4 RTPI members, then our Small Planning Consultancy of the Year is for you.
  • We have introduced a new Mid-Size Planning Consultancy of the Year category, and we are welcoming entries from consultancies with 5-9 members.
  • If there are 10 or more RTPI members, then why not enter our Planning Consultancy of the Year category.
• You can now submit extra documentation to support your entry, including:
  • Statistical data
  • Qualitative assessments and testimonials
  • Survey results
  • Visual documentation
  • Testimonials
• We’ve extended the timeframe for plan and project completion to three years and we are looking for entries completed between 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2024.

Award categories

There are 15 planning related categories in total and our RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence are free to enter. View the categories below.

Plans

• Excellence in Plan Making Practice

Projects

• 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 under 50 homes)
• Excellence in Planning for Communities (large schemes of 50 or more homes)
• Excellence in Digital Planning Practice
• International Award for Planning Excellence

People

• In-house Planning Team of the Year
• Small Planning Consultancy of the Year
• Planning Consultancy of the Year
• Planning Authority of the Year
• Inspirational Leader of the Year
• Young Planner of the Year

For the full list of categories and criteria visit this page

The closing date for entries is 13 March 2025.

To start your submission visit Evessio.

Why should you enter?

1. We champion the power of planning.
2. Shine a spotlight on your organisation and your achievements. We make it easy for you to make the most of the promotional opportunities that being part of our awards provides.
3. Entering an award helps boost staff morale. The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence recognise how your people, teams and plans contribute and make a real difference to communities.
4. We help you to demonstrate how far your business has come.

"Winning Young Planner of the Year is a huge career highlight, and it means a lot to have been recognised for the ambassador work I’ve completed over recent years. I would highly recommend other Young Planners to enter next year, and my top tip would be to align your submission with the RTPI’s key values and current campaigns."
Frances Keenan - Winner of the 2024 Young Planner of the Year award.

Key dates 2025

• 16 January - RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence open for entries
• 13 March at 11.59pm - Entry deadline
• 15 May - Shortlist announced for Nations and Regions 
• June - Announcing the winners in the Nations and Regions 
• August/September - National awards judging
• Mid-October - National finalists announced
• End November - National ceremony

The judging process

The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence has 15 award categories, entries in the Nations and Regions are initially judged across 11 categories and awarded as:

• Best Plan
• Best Project
• Planning Authority of the Year
• Small Planning Consultancy of the Year
• Mid-Size Planning Consultancy of the Year
• Young Planner of the Year*

These winners become national finalists. The shortlisted entries are put through for judging in the national awards and will be judged against the others in their selected categories for the national finalist list. The remaining four direct to national categories are also judged to complete the national finalist list of 15 categories. The winners and commendations are announced at the national ceremony in November. 

*All Young Planner of the Year winners will be entered into the national shortlist and will be judged by the national judges and the top five will become national finalists.

Start your entry today

For more information

If you have any questions, or are interested in sponsorship opportunities, please view the details below or contact [email protected]

Please contact Lucy Barton-Roberts or the Awards Team for more information or to discuss sponsorship opportunities.