Planning gains (or planning obligations) are ways that local authorities in the United Kingdom can secure additional public benefits from developers, during the granting of planning permission.[1]
Planning gains seek to capture some of the uplift in land value which is generated by the granting of planning permission, and can be used to ensure that commercially viable development is not socially or environmentally unsustainable. They are used to fund the provision of public goods, including affordable housing, community infrastructure (such as libraries or parks), or environmental safeguards.
In England and Wales, such arrangements are negotiated between the developer and the local planning authority (LPA), and take place under the terms of Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. In Scotland the equivalent is a Section 75 planning obligation (Section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997).