The evolution of betterment in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the new planning gain supplement's place in the history of the collection of betterment in the UK and understand how the intertwining strands of revenue collection and planning betterment have interacted to produce different forms of legislation to address the issue. The paper looks historically at the legislation used in past attempts to collect betterment to understand the origins of the planning gain provisions. The legislation in the past has tended to emerge mainly from one or other of the two strands of thought, namely revenue production or to achieve planning aims. The present arrangements appear to have both planning agreements and the revenue arrangements of planning gain supplement running side by side. The paper provides an understanding of this history of the subject and the evolution of betterment within the UK. It is of use to practitioners in placing the current legislation in the context of the historical perspective. The paper updates and extends existing material to cover planning gain supplement introduced by the new act, and puts it in a different context. It should be of interest to academic readers keeping up with the latest developments in legislation, policy makers and the betterment debate, and of interest to practitioners who want background to this new area of work.