Wales Launches National Conversation on Its Future to 2050

How do you engage a whole country in planning for the next 25 years? Wales is about to find out.

The Welsh Government has launched a national conversation about the future of Wales to 2050, as it begins a major revision of the country’s National Development Framework.

And the conversation goes well beyond traditional planning questions.

People and organisations across Wales are being invited to consider homes and communities, the economy, climate and nature, movement and connectivity, culture and language, and health and wellbeing — and how those priorities should shape the places, infrastructure and natural resources Wales will need in the decades ahead.

The public consultation runs from 19 August to 20 November 2026, supported by engagement events across Wales in September and October.

One to Watch From Australia and New Zealand

For engagement practitioners closer to home, what makes the Welsh approach interesting is its attempt to connect long-term infrastructure and planning decisions with a much broader conversation about the future people want.

The Welsh Government is also consulting on its National Conversation Engagement Plan and Statement of Public Participation — putting how people will participate in the process on the table alongside the policy questions themselves.

That makes this one worth watching.

As Australia and New Zealand grapple with major infrastructure investment, housing, energy transition, climate adaptation and competing demands on communities, Wales offers a live example of what it can look like to ask a bigger question first: what future are we actually planning for?

Explore the Welsh Government’s national conversation →