governments at all levels rely on a variety of revenue streams but local governments in oecd countries are almost always constrained by higher level governments in terms of their ability to raise revenue and what they can spend it on the relationship between fiscal and planning systems in a country in turn creates incentives for how land is used see box for an illustration whereas the united kingdom s central land use planning system is one of the most rigid in the world and its fiscal system is heavily centralised switzerland is an extremely decentralised country with strong political and fiscal powers allocated at local level two main features distinguish the british development control system from the continental european rulebased zoning system first development control is highly centralised and imposes stringent land use restrictions to contain uiban growth throughout the country green belts that are largely sacrosanct for development for example surround all major urban centres in england second development control is discretionary rather than mle based