Wales has a new government. The Senedd election of 7 May has brought a change of administration, and with it a clear intention that places energy independence, flood resilience, nature recovery and long-term infrastructure investment at its centre.

For those who have followed NICW’s work over recent years, the incoming government’s priorities will have a familiar ring. Not because we have been making party-political arguments – independence from government is central to our purpose, after all – but because the challenges we have been analysing are Wales’s challenges, and have been identified as such by others.

Encouragingly, Wales is not starting from scratch. This post sets out where we see the strongest alignments between our published recommendations and the new government’s programme, and makes the case that our evidence base is ready to be put to work.

Energy

The new government has committed to a National Energy Strategy, a net-zero target of 2040, mandatory community ownership stakes in large renewable energy projects, a Wales Wealth Fund drawing on renewable energy profits, and making the devolution of the Crown Estate a day-one priority.

Our 2023 report, Preparing Wales for a Renewable Energy 2050, made almost exactly these arguments. We called for a Welsh Government vision for energy to 2050 with an accompanying Strategy and Action Plan. We recommended legislation to enable greater community ownership of renewable energy. And we argued that the Crown Estate’s functions in Wales should be devolved to a new body with its principal aim being the reinvestment of all revenues in Wales.

We also identified the practical barriers that will need to be tackled for these ambitions to be realised: a planning and consenting system that is too slow, grid planning that has not kept pace with policy ambition, and permitted development rights that create unnecessary obstacles to small-scale renewable generation. Our Wales Infrastructure Assessment 2026 (WIA26), published in March, reinforces all of this, and notes that the Welsh Government’s preference for undergrounding electricity lines is in tension with the evidence on deliverability and cost, which is something the new administration will need to work through carefully.

Flooding

The new government proposes a Flood Resilience and Preparedness Forum, region-specific catchment strategies, resilience hubs in at-risk communities, a whole-catchment approach incorporating nature-based solutions, and a 30-year national strategy for flood and coastal erosion resilience.

Our 2024 report, Building Resilience to Flooding in Wales by 2050, mirrors this ambition, crucially recommending a Water Commissioner with the powers to make it all happen. The Green Paper on regulation in the water sector opens the opportunity to rework how the water sector can deliver for communities and for Nature. Our evidence adds an important dimension the manifesto also picks up: the mental health and community wellbeing impacts of flooding, and the critical role of community engagement in building genuine resilience rather than just physical defences.

Nature

The new government proposes a new Environmental Governance Office, legally binding biodiversity targets, and a new body, Nature Estate Cymru, to drive nature recovery in Wales.

Our Nature on the Board programme, completed this year, speaks directly to how nature’s interests can be embedded in institutional decision-making. Our Nature Guardian pilot, placing board-level nature advocates within host organisations, has produced practical case study evidence of what works. We pursued a strategy of ‘learning in the open’, publishing a series of documents on our journey, and sharing the learnings at a sizeable event in January 2026. These are the building blocks from which a new Environmental Governance Office and Nature Estate Cymru could be constructed, and we are happy to share everything we have learned.

Climate action and communities

Physical defences alone will not make Wales resilient. That is the central argument of our 2025 report, A Perfect Storm: climate adaptation and community engagement, and it is one the new government’s manifesto reflects in its emphasis on resilience hubs, community involvement in flood planning, and mental health support for flood-affected communities.

A Perfect Storm examined how communities across Wales are experiencing and responding to the accelerating impacts of climate change, with flooding as the primary lens. We found that the human dimensions of climate adaptation are consistently under prioritised. Communities are often engaged after decisions have been made rather than during them. The mental health and wellbeing toll of repeated flooding events is poorly understood and poorly resourced. And the voluntary and community organisations doing the most important frontline work are among the least funded and least secure.

The report made a direct case for meaningful, early and ongoing community engagement as a precondition for effective climate adaptation. We also produced a practical Toolkit for Community Engagement on Climate Change, which provides a resource that local authorities, resilience partnerships and community groups can use immediately. The new government’s proposed resilience hubs could be an excellent vehicle for putting this approach into practice at scale.

The Wales Infrastructure Assessment

Underlying all of these themes is a more fundamental point. The new government has committed to evidence-led policy, long-term budget planning, and an integrated approach to public spending. Our Wales Infrastructure Assessment 2026 provides the first independent, cross-sectoral baseline of infrastructure needs across energy, water, transport, digital connectivity and the circular economy.

The Assessment’s cross-cutting analysis also identifies the systemic barriers that have held back infrastructure delivery: inconsistent long-term policy, fragmented planning, funding uncertainty, skills gaps, and insufficient integration across government. These are exactly the structural problems the new government will need to address if it is to translate its programme into delivery on the ground.

There is an economic case here too, and it is one the new government’s enterprise agenda makes directly. Infrastructure investment is one of the most effective levers for stimulating growth, creating well-paid jobs and building investor confidence. NICW’s work speaks directly to the ambition of creating a more resilient, high-skilled Welsh economy. A clear long-term infrastructure vision, of the kind the WIA26 is designed to support, is also one of the strongest signals Wales can send to potential investors that it is a serious, stable place to do business.

Ready to support

NICW exists to provide independent, long-term, evidence-based advice on Wales’s infrastructure needs. The work we have produced over the past four years on energy, flooding, nature, climate adaptation and engagement, and now the full infrastructure landscape, is available, current and relevant. We look forward to working with the new government, and to playing our part in turning evidence into action.

Image by marian from Pixabay