Cardiff’s new regeneration strategy to focus on three most deprived neighbourhoods

A new five-year regeneration plan for Cardiff has been approved by the council’s cabinet, setting out how investment and placemaking activity will be prioritised across the city.

The Regeneration Strategy 2025-2030 has identified three priority neighbourhoods proposed for development under the Welsh government’s transforming towns programme.

Adamsdown & Splott, Butetown and Cardiff Bay, and Plasnewydd have been highlighted because they are in the 10% most deprived areas in Wales and have no existing placemaking plan.

The council said the order and timescales of plan delivery will depend on funding opportunities and the delivery of existing projects. The potential for future funding schemes that introduce different eligibility criteria could shift the focus to other neighbourhoods for regeneration.

The new strategy has been developed in line with the council’s Corporate Plan 2025-28 and the emerging Replacement Local Development Plan.

It aims to provide a city-wide regeneration framework by bringing together council policies and programmes into a single approach.

As a result of public and stakeholder consultation that took place between December 2025 and February 2026, the council said several revisions were made to the strategy to “improve clarity, strengthen delivery and better reflect the issues raised by respondents.”

Lee Bridgeman, cabinet member for housing and communities, said: “The amended version is clearer, more accessible and puts a stronger emphasis on inclusive design, safety and community involvement.

“This is about setting out a fair and transparent framework for regeneration that reflects what people have told us matters most, while helping guide future investment across the city.”

Updates to the amended strategy covered issues such as lighting, visibility, the protection of historical assets, supporting cultural venues and greater emphasis on the local identity of different neighbourhoods.

The Welsh government’s transforming towns programme aims to financially support the improvement of town centres or their nearby areas. It made a total of £100m available to local authorities from 2022 to 2025, split across the four regions of north, mid, south east and south west Wales.