News

On the 25th September 2025 we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Placemaking Wales Charter with an event that brought together signatories of the Charter to hear about how the Charter is making a difference in practice and share their thoughts on what next for placemaking in Wales.  The event provided the first opportunity to bring the signatories together to celebrate progress in placemaking but also continue to explore and identify action needed to tackle the barriers to further progress.

As well as plenty of time for the signatories to meet and discuss placemaking, there were also three short talks:

Rebecca Evans MA, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning renewed her support of the Charter and celebrated the progress made to date.  She also urged those local authorities not yet signed up to the Charter to do so.

Jen Heal, Deputy Chief Executive, DCFW provided an overview of the progress of the Charter and the work that DCFW have been doing to embed the Charter into practice including further guidance, training, events and partnership building, particularly with TfW, the affordable housing sector and regeneration.

Finally, Steve Smith, Placemaking and Heritage Lead, Swansea Council provided an insightful overview into how Swansea has embedded placemaking within the authority and highlighted some of the key transformational projects taking place within the city and beyond.

Attendees had the opportunity to give feedback on what is going well with the Charter, what needs improvement, what they commit to doing and what they ask of others.  Feedback included:

• People and community still being to narrowly addressed.
• Need for more interdisciplinary working.
• Better procurement processes for small practices.
• Some improvement of people space over car space but much further to go.
• A greater role for arts, culture and community.

Alongside the event, we compiled a celebration document to share how the Charter is impacting practice in Wales.  Signatories were invited to submit a short summary reflecting on how the Charter has influenced their practice.  This provides a snapshot of the great work that is taking place in Wales to promote placemaking across all types of interventions in the built environment. You can download this document below.

The event was held in 71-72 Kingsway, a new, multipurpose development by Swansea Council which is part of the ongoing revitalisation of the Kingsway area of Swansea, building on earlier highway and public realm improvements. A fantastic example of the local authority’s commitment to placemaking and the ongoing collaboration between the council and DCFW.

The Placemaking Wales Charter was co-created by the 25+ organisations that make up the Placemaking Wales Partnership. This included representatives from a full range of built environment professions and related disciplines. Since its launch in 2020 the Charter has been signed up to by over 160 organisations working across Wales in the public and private sectors.