Celebrating Planning Excellence
The RTPI South West Awards for Planning Excellence 2025 showcase and celebrate the best plans, projects and people.
Our coveted awards recognise and highlight the positive contribution planning professionals make in the communities we serve around the world.
Here is how you 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.
- Familiarise yourself with the judging criteria, which can be found on the category pages.
- Visit 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.
- If you have 5-9 members, then we have introduced a new Mid-Size Planning Consultancy of the Year category.
- 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 both plan and project completion dates to three years. We are looking for entries completed between 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024.
2025 Categories
There are 15 planning related categories in total listed below and our RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence are free to enter.
Plans
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 homes or more)
- Excellence in Digital Planning Practice (Direct to National Category)
- International Award for Planning Excellence (Direct to National Category)
People
- In-house Planning Team of the Year (Direct to National Category)
- Small Planning Consultancy of the Year
- Mid-Size Planning Consultancy of the Year
- Planning Consultancy of the Year (Direct to National Category)
- Planning Authority of the Year
- Young Planner of the Year
Additional Category - South West Chair's Award*
'Unsung Heroes of Planning'
If you are working with a planner in your team or another organisation and would like them recognised for their work, then please do nominate them. The nominee could be recognised for their great initiative for getting the job done, perhaps they have been innovative in their approach, led or collaborated on a great project for example. The nominee could be a great team motivator, a role model or even a mentor to their peers. These planners are those that generally going above and beyond and should be recognised.
The closing date for entries into this separate category is 23.59 on 31st March 2025
To nominate, all you need to do is tell us in no more than 300 words as why that Planner** should be recognised and email this to [email protected]
More information on previous winners here
*Please note that this award is not entered through our awards process but chosen locally by the regional chair and presented at the same time as the regional awards ceremony.
**The nominee must be a member of the RTPI in any class.
Let’s celebrate the great work that the people behind planning do for our region.
Why should you enter?
- We champion the power of planning and are the only free awards dedicated solely to the planning discipline.
- We help you to 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.
- Entering an award helps boost staff morale. The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence recognise how your plans, project and people contribute and make a real difference to communities.
- We help you to demonstrate how far your business has come.
Click to see more on our previous South West region winners.
"Cornwall Council's Planning Policy Team are honoured that the Climate Emergency DPD won both Best Plan and Best in Region in the South West Regional Awards 2024, plus also Best Plan in the National Awards 2024. Produced collaboratively during the challenges of the Covid 19 Pandemic and a less than certain national policy context, this document squarely targets carbon emissions, the effects of global warming as well as fuel poverty whilst ensuring that much needed homes can continue to be delivered.
The team is dedicated to helping to standardise best practice in policy making, in a pragmatic way that recognises the social benefits for Cornwall’s residents. Winning these awards is a real boost to our ongoing work of implementing our policies and supporting our customers as well as our efforts to share experience with other authorities and help standardise best practice, including on net zero homes. Being recognised by the RTPI in this way helps to highlight the importance of plan-making continuing to push boundaries, embrace new learning curves and keep tackling challenging issues on behalf of our communities, wildlife and landscapes."
Climate Emergency DPD, submitted by Robert Lacey and Emily Rubin at Cornwall Council.
Key dates 2025
- 16 January - RTPI South West Awards for Planning Excellence open for entries
- 13 March at 11.59pm - Entry deadline
- 23 April - 7 May - South West judges site visits and/or Young Planner interviews
- 15 May - South West shortlist announced
- 11 June - Announcing the winners in the region at the South West Summer Reception and Awards Ceremony
- August/September - National awards judging
- Mid-October - National finalists announced
- End November - National ceremony
Your South West coordinator will update you with the exact dates.
The judging process
The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence has 15 national award categories. Entries in the South West are initially judged across 11 categories and then 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.
Sponsors
If you are interested in sponsoring the South West awards, please contact Charlotte Daborn, RTPI South West Regional Coordinator.
For more information
For tips on how to win visit our how to win web page.
If you have any questions, please visit the awards hub or contact Charlotte Daborn, RTPI South West Regional Coordinator.
