ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the ethos of sustainability and community development. It explains how infrastructure is provided in settlements and the approaches and organisations involved in the development of settlements. The chapter describes approaches to town and community management. Abroad perspective of development process requires consideration of the always evolving aggregation of future developments in society. National planning concerns turns on the place of the UK in the European and world economies and on the state of the country, i.e., the latter in terms of economic, social and political factors. Existing settlements range from huge conurbations to small hamlets and isolated farmsteads. New isolated individually owned buildings in the countryside are relatively rare but are sometimes built for agricultural purposes, country houses, military purposes or telecommunications. Nationally, energy is supplied to energy users in property from the traditional sources of coal and its products, electricity, gas, hydro-power, radioactive substances, oil and combustibles, eg timber.
